Video narration
Have you ever looked at a culture report and wondered whether the antibiotic with the highest percentage is automatically the right choice? An antibiogram is a local summary of susceptibility: how often tested bacterial isolates were susceptible to particular antibiotics within a defined hospital, population, specimen source, and time period. It is not a test performed on your patient. Read it by matching the organism and setting first, then compare susceptibility percentages for the antibiotics listed. A higher percentage means more tested isolates were susceptible. That can inform empiric therapy-an initial choice made before the individual culture result returns. But here is the turn: the table is not a menu, and the highest number does not prescribe. Allergies, renal function, infection site, illness severity, previous antibiotics, resistance risk, and local guidelines still shape the decision. When the individual culture and susceptibility result arrives, use it to narrow or change treatment. So, use the local antibiogram to estimate likely coverage before cultures return, then tailor therapy to the patient and the final result.