New thoughts on the "forgotten" aspect of antimicrobial stewardship: adverse event reporting

Antimicrobial stewardship is an activity that optimizes patient care through selection of the most appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Antimicrobial stewardship programs strive to enhance patient care and reduce preventable consequences of antimicrobial use. They are also vital in monitoring for the development of adverse events occurring as a result of antimicrobial therapy, although literature reviews of this activity are scarce. Although randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard to study the efficacy of a medication, these trials are not designed to test safety end points and often are only able to identify the most commonly occurring and acute adverse events. In addition, prior to a drug going to market, it is difficult to detect rare adverse events because the associated costs are economically untenable given the limited pipeline of novel agents. These limitations in some ways may be resolved with the use of postmarketing surveillance and spontaneous reporting systems such as the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System. The focus of this commentary is to highlight the importance of adverse event reporting by antimicrobial stewardship programs to spontaneous reporting systems as a means to improve patient care.

Toxic optic neuropathies

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Many causes of toxic optic neuropathy have been described to date and novel causes of toxicity are continuously being added to the current literature. The pathophysiological basis for the toxicity or a direct causal relationship is yet to be determined for many of these agents. This review highlights the reports made over the last year about the commonly reported agents, with emphasis on the mechanisms of toxicity.

RECENT FINDINGS

Mitochondria of retinal ganglion cells and papillomacular bundle in particular could be the common target of many causes of toxic optic neuropathy, if not all. Agents or their metabolites responsible for the toxicity seem to interfere with the oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria, causing a buildup of reactive oxidation species, energy depletion, oxidative stress, and activation of apoptosis.

SUMMARY

Further data are still necessary to understand how some of the usual suspects cause damage to the optic nerve or whether they indeed cause damage or not. A basic algorithm, as proposed, could be a useful addition to discriminate the novel causes of toxic optic neuropathy.

VIDEO ABSTRACT

See the Supplemental Digital Content 1 (http://links.lww.com/COOP/A11).