Gram-negative (GN) bacteria account for high proportion of patho- gens causing sepsis (Martin et al., 2003), and adequacy of initial antimi- crobial therapy is an important determinant of survival (Kang et al., 2005).
Current guidelines recommend the administration of effective intra- venous antimicrobials within the first hour of recognition of septic shock and severe sepsis without septic shock (Dellinger et al., 2013). However, only 50% of septic shock patients received effective antimicro- bial therapy within 6 h of documented hypotension, and mortality rate is significantly increased if effective antimicrobial therapy is delayed by even 1 h following onset of septic shock–related hypotension