Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about intra-abdominal infections. And you can find written notes on this topic at

zero-to-finals.com slash intra-abdominal infections or in the infectious diseases section Dysmptominal Infections or in the Infectious Diseases section of the second edition of the Zero to Finals Medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

There is a long list of possible intra-abdominal infections,

including acute diverticulitis, which is infection and inflammation in intestinal diverticular,

acute colicestitis with secondary infection in the gallbladder, ascending colangitis, which is infection

in the bile ducts, appendicitis, which is infection in the appendix,

spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, which is infection in the acidic fluid in the peritoneal cavity,

and intra-abdominal abscesses.

Let's talk about the bacteria. Common bacterial causes of intradominal infections

include anaerobes, for example, bacteriodes and clostridium, e-coli, plebscella, enterococcus, and streptococcus.

Next let's talk about the antibiotics.

Intra-abdominal infections require broad-spectrum antibiotics until the culture results are available.

Antibartics need to cover gram-positive, gram-negative bacteria and anaerobes.

Co-a-moxaclav provides good gram-positive, gram-negative and anerob cover. It does not cover

pseudomonas or atypical bacteria. Quinaulones, such as cyprophloxacin and leverfloxicin, provide reasonable gram-positive and gram-negative

cover and also cover atypical bacteria. However, they do not cover anerobes, so they're usually

paired with metronidazole when treating intra-abdominal infections.

Metronidazole provides excellent cover for anaerobic bacteria, but it does not provide any cover

against aerobic bacteria.

Gentimicin provides excellent gram-negative cover and some gram-positive cover, particularly

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