Short courses of antibiotic therapy yield similar clinical outcomes as prolonged courses in the treatment of Enterobacteriaceae bacteremia, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study at three medical centers. They examined patients with monomicrobial Enterobacteriaceae bacteremia treated with in vitro active therapy for six to 16 days from 2008 through 2014. The patients were divided into a short-course antibiotic therapy group and prolonged-course group.
Researchers found the median duration of therapy in the short-course group and prolonged-course group was eight days and 15 days, respectively. There was no difference in mortality between the treatment groups.
The study also shows the odds of recurrent bloodstream infections and Clostridium difficile infections were also similar between the two groups. However, there was a "trend toward a protective effect of short-course antibiotic therapy on the emergence of [multidrug-resistant gram-negative] bacteria," the study authors wrote.