Antimicrobial stewardship (AS) programs are effective in improving clinical outcomes associated with antimicrobial therapies while improving patient safety by reducing adverse events and development of bacterial resistance. Understanding the basic principles of AS is essential to the successful development and implementation of AS strategies. Identifying and developing strategies to address barriers and challenges to AS can facilitate the establishment of financial, administrative, and organizational support, and agreement and participation by individual prescribers. Review of published outcomes of AS demonstrates the effectiveness in reducing unnecessary antimicrobial use and adverse events such as Clostridium difficile infections. We also illustrate the need for further research and expansion of AS activities to office-based practices and communities by using novel and innovative AS strategies and by influencing regional and national policies.

Orally administered TMP-SMX appears to be a useful and well-tolerated therapy for treatment of acute osteomyelitis in children. Further prospective comparative studies will be needed to confirm this observation.

A pediatric collaborative that targeted the medication-delivery system decreased the rate of ADEs at participating institutions.

The majority of patients demonstrated clinical improvement after receiving daptomycin as primary therapy for proven gram-positive infections. Larger randomized controlled trials focusing on safety and efficacy are necessary to assess these outcomes with daptomycin use in the pediatric population.

A female infant underwent myelomeningocele repair and developed persistent ventricular dilatation. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices demonstrated meningitis with cultures growing Mycoplasma hominis. The infant was treated with multiple antibiotics including moxifloxacin. Moxifloxacin CSF levels were obtained for pharmacokinetic analysis. This case report adds the importance of understanding the pharmacokinetics of CSF moxifloxacin levels among infants.