Incidence of pathogen detection in blood cultures of severe sepsis and septic shock patients is higher, if blood cultures were drawn before anti-infective therapy.

Actual guidelines for the management of severe sepsis and septic shock recommend to draw blood cultures before anti-infective therapy. The grade of recommendation for this approach is high, the evidence, however, is low (1C) [1]. Thus, data on the influence of anti-infective therapy on microbiology results in seriously ill patients are urgently warranted.