Treatment of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae: the state of the art

The increasing incidence of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-KP) fundamentally alters the management of patients at risk to be colonized or infected by such microorganisms. Owing to the limitation in efficacy and potential for toxicity of the alternative agents, many experts recommend using combination therapy instead of monotherapy in CR-KP-infected patients. However, in the absence of well-designed comparative studies, the best combination for each infection type, the continued role for carbapenems in combination therapy and when combination therapy should be started remain open questions. Herein, the authors revise current microbiological and clinical evidences supporting combination therapy for CR-KP infections to address some of these issues.