Optimising antibiotic use in sepsis: PRONTO Trial

Sepsis progresses quickly, so early recognition and treatment is key.

But lots of other conditions can look like sepsis and this can result in people being treated unnecessarily with risk of side effects for them and contributing to antimicrobial resistance.

The PRONTO trial is testing a specific biomarker of bacterial infection, Procalcitonin, to help to recognise sepsis faster, to guide the most effective response, and to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.

PRONTO is a multidisciplinary trial that brings together experts in infection, emergency medicine, pharmacy, health economics, health inequalities and psychology to try and find practical answers to a challenge that clinical teams face multiple times every day across the globe. Led by teams at Liverpool University Hospitals, University of Liverpool and Cardiff University we are working with hospital across England and Wales, with support from NIHR clinical research network. PRONTO study opened in November 2020 and will recruit patients for 2 years