Comparison of intravenous and oral definitive antibiotic regimens in hospitalised patients with Gram-negative bacteraemia from a urinary tract infection.

OBJECTIVES

Transitioning patients from intravenous (IV) to oral antibiotic therapy has been shown to be a successful approach for several infections. However, minimal data exist evaluating outcomes following transition from to oral antibiotics for patients with bacteraemia secondary to a urinary tract infection (UTI). This study compared treatment failures between patients treated exclusively with IV antibiotics and those transitioned from IV to oral antibiotics for bacteraemia secondary to UTI.

METHODS

This single-centre, retrospective cohort study included hospitalised, non-critically ill adult patients treated with culture-susceptible antibiotic therapy for 7-21 days. Patients were divided into two cohorts based on the route of definitive antibiotic administration. Treatment failure was a composite outcome of death and recurrence of the index micro-organism within 21 days following negative blood cultures.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Among the 346 patients enrolled, 82 (23.7%) were in the IV cohort and 264 (76.3%) were in the IV-to-oral cohort. A total of six treatment failures occurred; 2 (2.4%) in the IV cohort and 4 (1.5%) in the oral transition cohort (hazard ratio=0.62, 95% confidence interval 0.11-3.39; P=0.58). All failures were due to recurrence of the index organism. Secondary outcomes demonstrated a significantly higher rate of IV line-associated complications in the IV cohort (P=0.03) and a favourable hospital length of stay in the oral cohort (P<0.001). Patients transitioned from IV to oral antibiotics based on culture-susceptibility data experienced similarly low rates of treatment failure as those who received exclusive IV therapy.