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Purpose: Asthma is a common comorbidity in patients with bronchiectasis and has been shown to increase the risk of bronchiectasis exacerbations. This paper explores the impact of comorbid asthma on patients receiving intravenous antibiotic treatment for bronchiectasis exacerbations. Methods: This was a post hoc analysis of the Meropenem randomised controlled trial of 90 patients that had intravenous antibiotic treatment for bronchiectasis exacerbations. The participants were split into two groups: group 1 (asthma and bronchiectasis) and group 2 (bronchiectasis). The authors assessed response to treatment and time to next exacerbation. Results: There were 38 participants in group 1 and 34 participants in group 2. The groups were found to be comparable in terms of age, sex, and bronchiectasis severity (median (95% CI) group 1 and then group 2 data): age 64.0(59.3, 68.6) and 63.6(57.9, 69.4) years old, p = 0.8; 57.9% and 64.7% female, p = 0.6; Bronchiectasis Severity Index 11.1(9.8, 12.4) and 10.1(8.2, 12.0), p = 0.3. There was a similar response to treatment between the groups, but group 1 were found to relapse early by day 14, 31.6% in group 1 and 11.8% in group 2, p = 0.03. In the Cox proportional hazards model, asthma was the only independent risk factor for early relapse by day 14 (odds ratio (95% CI) 3.16 (1.02–9.79), p = 0.047). Conclusion: The clinical response to treatment was similar but patients with coexisting asthma were at increased risk of early relapse within 14 days of stopping intravenous antibiotic therapy. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT02047773. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cutibacterium is the most common organism causing shoulder periprosthetic infection (PJI). While most shoulder PJIs are well treated by prosthesis exchange and antibiotics, in some cases this treatment fails to resolve the infection. The factors associated with these failures have not been previously identified. The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of patients with failure of treatment for PJI. Methods: Thirty-five patients suspected of having Cutibacterium PJI had revision arthroplasty with single-stage implant exchange followed by intravenous antibiotics. The characteristics of those with ≥ two positive cultures at revision surgery were compared to those who did not. The characteristics of those patients having a re-revision with ≥ two positive deep cultures (documented treatment failures) were compared to those who did not. Results: The 17 patients that had ≥ two positive cultures at their index revision were more likely to be male, to have had ream and run procedures, and to have higher loads of Cutibacterium on pre-operative cultures of their unprepared skin. The five patients that had documented treatment failure had higher loads of Cutibacterium on their skin and in deep cultures obtained at their index revision. Conclusion: Patients harboring high loads of Cutibacterium on their unprepared skin prior to revision and high loads of Cutibacterium on deep cultures at the time of their index revision are at increased risk for failure of implant exchange and antibiotics to resolve a Cutibacterium PJI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency department (ED) patients with cellulitis requiring intravenous antibiotics may be eligible for outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT). The primary objective was to determine whether implementation of an OPAT clinic results in decreased hospitalizations and return ED visits for patients receiving OPAT. We conducted an interrupted time series study involving adults with cellulitis presenting to two EDs and treated with intravenous antibiotics. The intervention was the OPAT clinic, which involved follow up at 48–96 h with an infectious disease physician to determine the need for ongoing intravenous antibiotics (implemented January 1, 2014). The primary outcomes were hospital admission and return ED visits within 14 days. Secondary outcomes were treatment failure (admission after initiating OPAT) and adverse peripheral line or antibiotic events. We used an interrupted time series design with segmented regression analysis over one-year pre-intervention and one-year post-intervention. 1666 patients were included. At the end of the study period, there was a non-significant 12% absolute increase in hospital admissions (95% CI − 1.6 to 25.5%; p = 0.084) relative to what would have been expected in the absence of the intervention, but a significant 40.7% absolute reduction in return ED visits (95% CI 25.6–55.9%; p < 0.001). Treatment failure rates were < 2% and adverse events were < 6% in both groups. Implementation of an OPAT clinic significantly reduced return ED visits for cellulitis, but did not reduce hospital admission rates. An ED-to-OPAT clinic model is safe, and has a low rate of treatment failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prophylactic antibiotic administration aims to maintain the postoperative wound environment. It is difficult to select appropriate prophylactic antibiotics to minimize the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and the occurrence of complications. The purpose of this study was to compare the prophylactic effect of narrow spectrum antibiotics (cefazolin) with that of wide spectrum antibiotics (piperacillin) in preventing infection following third molar extraction. In addition, the effect of postoperative cefazolin administration was examined. This retrospective study included 350 patients who underwent third molar removal under general anesthesia. The patients were divided into three subgroups: preoperative cefazolin (N = 122), pre- and postoperative cefazolin (N = 101), and pre- and postoperative piperacillin (N = 127). The patients in the piperacillin group were administered the antibiotic preoperatively and postoperatively for 3 days. The patients in the preoperative cefazolin group were administered cefazolin preoperatively only. The patients in the pre- and postoperative cefazolin group were administered cefazolin preoperatively and postoperatively for 1 day. Surgical site infections (SSIs) were identified based on the Clavien–Dindo 30-day postoperative classification. There was a significant difference among the three groups of patients who had third molars classified as position C using the Pell and Gregory classification, according to the degree of impaction of the impacted third molar (P = 0.015). Our analysis showed that the number of SSI did not significantly differ between the three antibiotic treatment groups (P = 0.671). These results suggest that preoperative administration of cefazolin is as effective as postoperative administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as piperacillin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intravenous (IV) antibiotic therapy for pulmonary exacerbations (PE) has been shown to improve pulmonary functioning for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF); however, little is known about its effects on pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This prospective study assessed the impact of IV treatment of a PE on generic and CF-specific HRQOL for children and adolescents with CF. Participants included 52 children and adolescents with CF experiencing a PE ( Mage = 13.6 years; 54% males; $$ M_{{{\text{FEV}}_{1\% } }} $$ predicted = 58.8%). HRQOL, pulmonary functioning, and body mass index were assessed before and after IV antibiotic treatment. Results of this prospective, observational study indicated significant improvements on CFQ-R Respiratory ( Mchange score = 11.7; 95% CI = 6.3–17.1; p < .0001) and Weight ( Mchange score = 15.9; 95% CI = 7.9–23.8; p < .0001) scales. The CF-specific measure was more sensitive to changes in HRQOL than the generic instrument. These data suggest that CF-specific HRQOL improves with treatment for a PE with IV antibiotics. The noted statistically and clinically significant changes in the CFQ-respiratory scale indicate that the measure may be beneficial to pulmonary health care teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Septic arthritis is the most dreaded affection of the joints in children. Early diagnosis, urgent arthrotomy and intravenous antibiotic therapy, however, are essential factors in treatment of septic arthritis to prevent devastating complications. However, the optimal duration of intravenous antibiotic therapy for acute septic arthritis after surgical drainage is not well defined. We performed a prospective study in 93 patients with age less than 5 years who presented with acute septic arthritis and treated with arthrotomy and sequential antibiotic therapy based on determination of serial quantitative CRP levels correlating radiological and clinical outcome. Majority of the subjects (84%) had CRP values more than or equal to 96 mg/dl at the time of presentation. More than half of the subjects had CRP values reverted to normal by the seventh day of treatment. By the 21st day of treatment, all the subjects had CRP values at baseline levels. “The clinical and radiological outcome was excellent in 85% of the cases where the CRP normalized by 7 days compared to 25% where the CRP had not normalized by 21 days.” The difference was found to be statistically significant. We conclude from our study that CRP levels decreases consistently during the antibiotic therapy and patients in whom CRP values return to normal earlier have good clinical and radiological outcomes. We also conclude that intravenous antibiotics should be stopped and switched over to oral therapy once CRP levels return to normal in cases of acute septic arthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]