• Alexis Tabah, Matteo Bassetti, Marin H Kollef, Jean-Ralph Zahar, José-Artur Paiva, Jean-Francois Timsit, Jason A Roberts, Jeroen Schouten, Helen Giamarellou, Jordi Rello, Jan De Waele, Andrew F Shorr, Marc Leone, Garyphallia Poulakou, Pieter Depuydt, and Jose Garnacho-Montero.
• Intensive Care Unit, Redcliffe and Caboolture Hospitals, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. a.tabah@uq.edu.au.
• Intensive Care Med. 2020 Feb 1; 46 (2): 245-265.

BackgroundAntimicrobial de-escalation (ADE) is a strategy of antimicrobial stewardship, aiming at preventing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by decreasing the exposure to broad-spectrum antimicrobials. There is no high-quality research on ADE and its effects on AMR. Its definition varies and there is little evidence-based guidance for clinicians to use ADE in the intensive care unit (ICU).MethodsA task force of 16 international experts was formed in November 2016 to provide with guidelines for clinical practice to develop questions targeted at defining ADE, its effects on the ICU population and to provide clinical guidance. Groups of 2 experts were assigned 1-2 questions each within their field of expertise to provide draft statements and rationale. A Delphi method, with 3 rounds and an agreement threshold of 70% was required to reach consensus.ResultsWe present a comprehensive document with 13 statements, reviewing the evidence on the definition of ADE, its effects in the ICU population and providing guidance for clinicians in subsets of clinical scenarios where ADE may be considered.ConclusionADE remains a topic of controversy due to the complexity of clinical scenarios where it may be applied and the absence of evidence to the effects it may have on antimicrobial resistance.

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