Combination antibiotic therapy in critically ill patients

Combination antibiotic therapy may be used for a number of reasons in critically ill patients. The potential benefits of combination therapy include prevention of resistance, treatment of polymicrobial infections, to decrease toxicity, or for synergy. Selected literature is reviewed which examines the use of combination therapy in critically ill patients. Research reports have not uniformly demonstrated the benefits of combination therapy. The situations where combination therapy has been beneficial are discussed.