Clinical complications in patients with primary and recurrent infection: A real-world data analysis

Objective: Clostridioides difficile infection and recurrent C. difficile infection result in substantial economic burden and healthcare resource use. Sepsis and bowel surgery are known to be serious complications of C. difficile infection. This study evaluated clinical complications in patients with C. difficile infection and recurrent C. difficile infection during a 12-month period following the primary C. difficile infection. Methods: A retrospective analysis of commercial claims data from the IQVIA PharMetrics Plus™ database was conducted for patients aged 18–64 years with an index C. difficile infection episode requiring inpatient stay or an outpatient visit for C. difficile infection followed by a C. difficile infection treatment. Each C. difficile infection episode ended after a 14-day C. difficile infection-claim-free period was observed. Recurrent C. difficile infection was defined as a further C. difficile infection episode within an 8-week window following the claim-free period. Clinical complications were documented over 12 months of follow-up and stratified by the number of recurrent C. difficile infection episodes (0 rCDI, 1 rCDI, 2 rCDI, and 3+ rCDI). Results: In total, 46,571 patients with index C. difficile infection episode were included. During the 6-month pre-index, the mean (standard deviation) baseline Charlson comorbidity index score, by increasing the recurrent C. difficile infection group, was 1.2 (1.9), 1.5 (2.2), 1.8 (2.3), and 2.3 (2.5). During the 12-month follow-up, sepsis occurred in 16.5%, 27.3%, 33.1%, and 43.3% of patients, and subtotal colectomy or diverting loop ileostomy was performed in 4.6%, 7.3%, 8.9%, and 10.5% of patients, respectively, by increasing the recurrent C. difficile infection group. Conclusions: Reduction in recurrent C. difficile infection is an important step to reduce the burden of serious clinical complications, and new treatments are needed to reduce C. difficile infection recurrence.