ReviewThe Lancet. Infectious diseases2025
Antimicrobials in serious illness and end-of-life care: lifting the veil of silence.
Review in The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Antibiotics must be part of end-of-life decisions: a necessary evil?Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Community engagement strategies for antimicrobial resistance control and interventions.BMJ public health · 2026Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Global rates of antimicrobial consumption increased by 65% between 2000 and 2015, by 16% between 2016 and 2023, and are estimated to increase by an additional 52% by 2030. Antimicrobial use and misuse remains high among people with serious illness and at end of life, despite scarce evidence of benefit. In addition, the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials at end of life further exacerbate antimicrobial resistance, which is a substantial public and global health concern. This Personal View synthesises global interprofessional and multidisciplinary perspectives on antimicrobial use, stewardship, and resistance at end of life and implications at patient and population levels. Guidelines have been summarised from multiple countries, some of which offer guidance for antimicrobial use at end of life. Countries at different income levels are included (ie, Chile, Colombia, Germany, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Sudan) to show how practice norms and standards vary internationally. These examples are combined with a case of non-beneficial end-of-life antimicrobial use and clinical guidance for patient and family communication regarding antimicrobial treatment. This Personal View also provides recommendations to improve antimicrobial stewardship with the goal of engaging multidisciplinary stakeholders and decreasing inappropriate antimicrobial use at end of life.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.