Fluoroquinolone stewardship at a community health system: A decade in review

Retrospective cohort study of oral switch versus intravenous antibiotics for carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections on hospital discharge

OBJECTIVES

To compare outcomes of oral switch versus intravenous antibiotics for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) infections at hospital discharge.

METHODS

Institutional review board approved, retrospective cohort of adults infected with CRE or CRPA who received oral switch or intravenous antibiotics at hospital discharge from January 1, 2017, to April 30, 2024. Patients were included if they were eligible for oral switch and infected with an isolate susceptible to one or more oral antibiotics; non-bacteremic urinary tract infections were excluded. The primary outcome was 30-day clinical success at end of therapy, defined as lack of infection-related hospitalization, infection-related recurrence, or change/escalation of therapy. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS) and 30-day all-cause mortality from end of therapy.

RESULTS

Fifty-five patients were included; 51% received oral switch antibiotics and 49% received intravenous antibiotics. Thirty-three percent of patients had CRE, 67% had CRPA, and 38% of cultures were polymicrobial. The most common infection types were pneumonia (33%), intra-abdominal (26%), and bone/joint (22%). The median (interquartile range [IQR]) duration of outpatient therapy was 12 (6-25) days versus 20 (4-34) days for the oral switch and intravenous antibiotic groups, respectively (p = 0.341). 30-day clinical success was 61% in the oral switch and 48% in the intravenous antibiotic groups (p = 0.349); the median (IQR) hospital LOS for the oral switch and intravenous antibiotic groups was 14 (9-25) days and 16 (9-49) days, respectively (p = 0.165); 30-day mortality was 4% in the oral switch group and 15% in the intravenous antibiotic group (p = 0.193).

CONCLUSION

A limited sample of patients who received oral switch antibiotics had similar outcomes to intravenous outpatient treatment of carbapenem-resistant organisms, with a shorter hospital LOS.

Difference between days of therapy and days of antibiotic spectrum coverage in an inpatient antimicrobial stewardship program: Vector autoregressive models for time-series analysis

OBJECTIVE

The days of therapy (DOT) metric, used to estimate antimicrobial consumption, has some limitations. Days of antibiotic spectrum coverage (DASC), a novel metric, overcomes these limitations. We examined the difference between these 2 metrics of inpatient intravenous antimicrobial consumption in assessing antimicrobial stewardship efficacy and antimicrobial resistance using vector autoregressive (VAR) models with time-series analysis.

METHODS

Differences between DOT and DASC were investigated at a tertiary-care center over 8 years using VAR models with 3 variables in the following order: (1) the monthly proportion of prospective audit and feedback (PAF) acceptance as an index of antimicrobial stewardship efficacy; (2) monthly DOT and DASC adjusted by 1,000 days present as indices of antimicrobial consumption; and (3) the monthly incidence of 5 organisms as an index of antimicrobial resistance.

RESULTS

The Granger causality test, which evaluates whether incorporating lagged variables can help predict other variables, showed that PAF activity contributed to DOT and DASC, which, in turn, contributed to the incidence of drug-resistant P. aeruginosa. Notably, only DASC helped predict the incidence of drug-resistant Enterobacterales. Another VAR analysis demonstrated that a high proportion of PAF acceptance was accompanied by decreased DASC in a given month, whereas increased DASC was accompanied by an increased incidence of drug-resistant Enterobacterales, unlike with DOT.

CONCLUSIONS

The VAR models of PAF activity, antimicrobial consumption, and antimicrobial resistance suggested that DASC may more accurately reflect the impact of PAF on antimicrobial consumption and be superior to DOT for predicting the incidence of drug-resistant Enterobacterales.

The Role of COVID-19 in Antibiotic Resistance in Pediatric Population

There is data on the irrational use of antimicrobial drugs in pediatric population during the COVID-19 pandemic. This could lead to potential development of antibiotic resistance and increased morbidity and mortality among this vulnerable population group. The aim of this review is to study the role of COVID-19 in antimicrobial drugs administration and antibiotic resistance development, as well as to determine a set of measures for its prevention. Recent studies results have shown that COVID-19 pandemic had both direct and indirect impact on antibiotic resistance development in pediatric population. The COVID-19 outbreak has revealed weaknesses in health systems around the world. Antibiotics administration in patients with coronavirus infection during this period exceeded the number of cases with bacterial co-infection or other diseases. Thus, it indicates irrational antibiotic treatment. There were cases of inappropriate antibiotics administration during the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic even in regions with long-term rational antibiotic treatment programs. One of the most viable methods to combat antibiotic resistance is to improve approaches in health care and to increase preparedness to infectious outbreaks. Increasing clinical competence of medical workers, accessibility of medical facilities, permanent supply of high-quality and cheap antibiotics, vaccines, reducing COVID-19 testing time, and adequate administration of antibacterial agents are the measures that can prevent diseases caused by drug resistance. All stakeholders (health authorities, regulating authorities, politicians, scientific community, pharmaceutical companies) have to collaborate and achieve results to implement all the mentioned above protection measures.