Abstract
Patients with severe influenza leading to respiratory failure and need for aggressive artificial pulmonary ventilation or extracorporeal oxygenation are being hospitalized at the resuscitation wards of our General University Hospital every year. These patients are being transferred from different hospitals, often with combined antimicrobial therapy; in each case, the infection with the influenza virus is confirmed, the cultivation of sputum from lower respiratory tract usually being negative or positive for a nosocominal flora typical of a given ward.
The article deals with the use of tigecycline in these patients, which has been successful in most cases and lead to improvement in the patient's condition including pulmonary oxygenation - see the case report. We used the antibiotic in a higher dose being aware of the off-label indication, without adverse effects or selection of resistant flora.
The individuals thus treated were of various ages, with or without comorbidities, including hemato-oncological patients.