[Decision analysis in antibiotic therapy].

Decision analysis constitutes a systematic approach for taking decisions in situations of uncertainty. This technique allows one to evaluate all therapeutic options and to quantify the possible results, with a view to selecting therapeutic regimens that have the best cost-effectivity relationship. Cost-benefict and cost-effectiveness studies have become increasingly more interesting in the evaluation of antibiotic therapy. In the present paper a review is offered of all factors that, both in antibiotic prophylaxis and the treatment of established infections, govern the cost-effectivity relationship of one's decisions. A review is also made of the methodology of decision analysis, whose use in antiinfective therapy seems sufficiently clear, specially as an objective criterion in the choice of antibiotics.