LA PJIs have a high failure rate. Treatment strategies should be individualized according to patients' age, comorbidity, clinical presentation and microorganism causing the infection.

BackgroundEnterococci are frequent pathogens causing nosocomial infections in Germany. Infections due to strains with vancomycin resistance are high when compared with other European states. Therefore, the study aimed to describe the recent progression of nosocomial infections due to vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in Germany.MethodsWe analyzed data from two components of the German national nosocomial infection surveillance system for the period 2007–2016. For primary bloodstream infections (BSIs) and urinary tract infections (UTIs) we used data from intensive care units and for surgical site infections (SSIs) data from surgical departments. In a sensitivity analysis, we considered only data from participants that participated continuously from 2007 to 2016 (“core group”). We calculated proportions of VRE among all nosocomial enterococcal infections with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) and trends over time. A multivariable logistic regression was used to compare occurrence of VRE proportions among German federal states.ResultsEnterococcal infections from 857 ICUs and 1119 surgical departments were analyzed. On ICUs, the proportion of vancomycin resistance in enterococci causing nosocomial infections significantly increased for BSIs from 5.9 to 16.7% and for UTIs from 2.9 to 9.9%; for surgical site infections, the proportion of VRE increased from 0.9 to 5.2% (P < 0.001 for all). In the core group, the increase of VRE was more pronounced in ICUs (BSIs: 5.5 to 21.6%; UTIs: 2 to 11.2%) but was not seen in surgical departments (SSIs: 1.5 to 2.8%). Compared with the most populous German federal state North Rhine Westphalia, enterococcal infections in Hesse (Odds Ratio (OR) 2.3, 95% CI 1.7–3.1), Saxony (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.8–3.5) and Thuringia (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.4–2.6) were more likely to be caused by vancomycin-resistant strains.ConclusionIn Germany, the proportion of VRE in nosocomial infection due to enterococci is still increasing. It remains unclear, why a large variation in the proportion of VRE exists between German federal states.

BackgroundInfections caused by vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are on the rise worldwide. Few studies have tried to estimate the mortality burden as well as the financial burden of those infections and found that VRE are associated with increased mortality and higher hospital costs. However, it is unclear whether these worse outcomes are attributable to vancomycin resistance only or whether the enterococcal species (Enterococcus faecium or Enterococcus faecalis) play an important role. We therefore aimed to determine the burden of enterococci infections attributable to vancomycin resistance and pathogen species (E. faecium and E. faecalis) in cases of bloodstream infection (BSI).MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study on patients with BSI caused by Enterococcus faecium or Enterococcus faecalis between 2008 and 2015 in three tertiary care hospitals. Data was collected on true hospital costs (in €), length of stay (LOS), basic demographic parameters, and underlying diseases including the results of the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). We used univariate and multivariable regression analyses to compare risk factors for in-hospital mortality and length of stay (i) between vancomycin-susceptible E. faecium- (VSEm) and vancomycin-susceptible E. faecalis- (VSEf) cases and (ii) between vancomycin-susceptible E. faecium- (VSEm) and vancomycin-resistant E. faecium-cases (VREm). We calculated total hospital costs for VSEm, VSEf and VREm.ResultsOverall, we identified 1160 consecutive cases of BSI caused by enterococci: 596 (51.4%) cases of E. faecium BSI and 564 (48.6%) cases of E. faecalis BSI. 103 cases of E. faecium BSI (17.3%) and 1 case of E. faecalis BSI (0.2%) were infected by vancomycin-resistant isolates. Multivariable analyses revealed (i) that in addition to different underlying diseases E. faecium was an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality and prolonged hospital stay and (ii) that vancomycin-resistance did not further increase the risk for the described outcomes among E. faecium-isolates. However, the overall hospital costs were significantly higher in VREm-BSI cases as compared to VSEm- and VSEf-BSI cases (80,465€ vs. 51,365€ vs. 31,122€ p < 0.001).ConclusionOur data indicates that in-hospital mortality and infection-attributed hospital stay in enterococci BSI might rather be influenced by Enterococcus species and underlying diseases than by vancomycin resistance. Therefore, future studies should consider adjusting for Enterococcus species in addition to vancomycin resistance in order to provide a conservative estimate for the burden of VRE infections.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13756-018-0419-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundThis study investigates the barriers and facilitators of the use of antibiotics in acute respiratory tract infections by general practitioners (GPs) in Germany.MethodsA multidisciplinary team designed and pre-tested a written questionnaire addressing the topics awareness of antimicrobial resistance (7 items), use of antibiotics (9 items), guidelines/sources of information (9 items) and sociodemographic factors (7 items), using a five-point-Likert-scale (“never” to “very often”). The questionnaire was mailed by postally to 987 GPs with registered practices in eastern Germany in May 2015.Results34% (340/987) of the GPs responded to this survey. Most of the participants assumed a multifactorial origin for the rise of multidrug resistant organisms. In addition, 70.2% (239/340) believed that their own prescribing behavior influenced the drug-resistance situation in their area. GPs with longer work experience (> 25 years) assumed less individual influence on drug resistance than their colleagues with less than 7 years experience as practicing physicians (Odds Ratio [OR] 0.32, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.17–0.62; P < 0.001). 99.1% (337/340) of participants were familiar with the “delayed prescription” strategy to reduce antibiotic prescriptions. However, only 29.4% (74/340) answered that they apply it “often” or “very often”. GPs working in rural areas were less likely than those working in urban areas to apply delayed prescription.ConclusionThe knowledge on factors causing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria is good among GPs in eastern Germany. However measures to improve rational prescription are not widely implemented yet. Further efforts have to be made in order to improve rational prescription of antibiotic among GPs. Nevertheless, there is a strong awareness of antimicrobial resistance among the participating GPs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-018-3120-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.