Shorter antibiotic course may not hurt outcomes in uncomplicated VRE bacteraemia

Antibiotic treatment for vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) bacteraemia lasting ≤9 days does not appear to be associated with worse outcomes than treatment lasting ≥10 days, according to a study.

In this retrospective study, 219 adult patients with a positive blood culture who received a VRE-active antibiotic for at least 48 hours were, were included for analysis. Overall, 21.9% of those included had an underlying hematological disease.

Short-course treatment, lasting a median of 7 days, was received by 35.6% of patients, and long-course treatment, lasting a median of 15 days, was received by 64.4% of patients.

Thirty-mortality was 19.2% and 22.0% in the short-course and long-course groups, respectively.

Although secondary outcome parameters did not differ between groups, the duration of hospitalization (in total and after onset of bacteraemia) was significantly shorter in the short-course treatment group.

Reference
Bahrs C, Rieg S, Hennigs A, et al; German Clinical Study Group in Infectious Diseases (DESTINi). Short-versus long-course antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated vancomycin-resistant enterococcal bacteraemia: a retrospective multicentre cohort study. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2022;S1198-743X(22)00460-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2022.08.023. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36087919.