The common use of urinary catheters and other factors often associated with nursing home care, foster infections. Mechanical ventilators, dialysis equipment, and other devices used to provide total parenteral nutrition can increase the risk of infections. Antibiotics are a large set of drugs use to cure or control numerous bacterial, viral, and fungal infections, including minor ones. Different families of antibiotics have been developed for use in combatting different types of infections. Antibiotics may be administered topically, orally, intravenously, or intramuscularly, in discrete doses or continuously.
All antibiotics are potentially life-sustaining.
Except for antibiotics, none of the five life-sustaining technologies discussed in this article cure the underlying condition that precipitated its use. Thus, among patients who receive these interventions and survive, health status and functional capacity vary widely. They may require continuous medical care and, often, other forms of assistance. Antibiotics generally are successful in combating most types of infections, with patients showing improvement within a few hours or days, and complete cure within a few days or weeks. With older persons, the outcome of antibiotic treatment for life-threatening infections are often unpredictable.