New definitions of susceptibility categories EUCAST 2019: clinic application

Abstract

In January 2019, the European Committee for the Study of Antimicrobial Susceptibility (EUCAST) introduced some changes in the definitions of clinical categories for antibiotic susceptibility. The objective of these changes was to improve the credibility of category “I”, optimizing and lengthening the survival and use of available antibiotics in the face of increasing antimicrobial resistance. This article aims to describe and explain these changes in the EUCAST criteria as well as make a short review about the factors on which the antibiotic susceptibility criteria depend.