Carbapenem stewardship: Does ertapenem affect Pseudomonas susceptibility to other carbapenems? A review of the evidence

The group 2 carbapenems (imipenem, meropenem and, more recently, doripenem) have been a mainstay of treatment for patients with serious hospital infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacteriaceae and other difficult-to-treat Gram-negative pathogens as well as mixed aerobic/anaerobic infections. When ertapenem, a group 1 carbapenem, was introduced, questions were raised about the potential for ertapenem to select for imipenem- and meropenem-resistant Pseudomonas. Results from ten clinical studies evaluating the effect of ertapenem use on the susceptibility of Pseudomonas to carbapenems have uniformly shown that ertapenem use does not result in decreased Pseudomonas susceptibility to these antipseudomonal carbapenems. Here we review these studies evaluating the evidence of how ertapenem use affects P. aeruginosa as well as provide considerations for ertapenem use in the context of institutional stewardship initiatives.