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Knowledge about the duration of digestive carriage of ESBL- and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae is an essential information, impacting clinical decisions (empiric treatment for known carriers) and infection control measures (preemptive precautions, sequential screening). Ten to 50% carriers are still colonized after one year, but these numbers might be overestimated. Use of genomic typing is required to distinguish endogenous long-term carriage from exogenous recolonization events. Median length of colonization appears to range between 0,5 and 13 months for E-ESBL and 0,7 to 10 months for CPE. We performed a narrative review of the literature on this topic. We finally suggest a few future perspectives.La durée de colonisation digestive par les

Microbiological cultures provide essential information to guide the antibiotic therapy. However, their results might be misleading for physicians and drive useless treatment, sometimes harmful for patients. Recommendations highlight the importance of clinical signs in order to take into account the pre-test probability when interpreting the results. This combination will improve the predictive value of microbiological tests. The sampling strategy is also important to avoid an overuse of these tests but also misleading results through a reduction of contaminants.Les cultures microbiologiques sont utiles pour guider le traitement antibiotique, mais elles peuvent également entraîner des antibiothérapies inutiles, voire délétères pour le patient. Il est donc conseillé de se baser avant tout sur la clinique et d’utiliser la probabilité prétest pour guider l’interprétation des résultats et en améliorer leur valeur prédictive. Il est également important d’avoir une bonne stratégie de prélèvement, que ce soit pour les expectorations, ou pour les hémocultures, afin d’éviter une surconsommation de ces tests et une représentation accrue des contaminants.