Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a potentially fatal illness, especially in the elderly and hospitalized individuals. The recurrence and rates of CDI are increasing. In addition, some cases of CDI are refractory to the currently available antibiotics. The search for improved modalities for the management of primary and recurrent CDI is underway. This review discusses the current antibiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and other options such as immunotherapy and administration of non-toxigenic Clostridium difficile (CD) for the management of both primary and recurrent CDI.
Community-onset urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by ESBL-producing
Enterobacterales
, particularly
E. coli
and
K. pneumoniae
, are a major public health concern. In this study, we assessed the impact of COVID-19 on ESBL rates in urine cultures in Ontario, Canada.
Introduction. Patients with
Staphylococcus aureus
bacteriuria (SABU) often have underlying invasive disease, including
S. aureus
bacteremia (SAB). It has been proposed that most patients with SABU should have a blood culture done to rule out SAB. A preliminary audit suggested that our local hospitals had a low rate of follow-up blood culture orders for patients with SABU. In response to this, our microbiology laboratory changed the comment appended to urine cultures with growth of
S. aureus
to make a more assertive link between SABU and SAB and to recommend follow-up blood cultures.
Aim. We designed a retrospective quasi-experimental study to see if the change in microbiology comment wording had an effect on clinician behaviour. We hypothesized that this simple comment change to make a more assertive link between SABU and SAB would lead to an increase in follow-up blood culture orders.
Methodology. We used microbiology records to identify adult patients with urine cultures positive for
Staphylococcus aureus
at three acute-care hospitals in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, for 1 year pre- and post-intervention. We recorded urine and blood culture results, timing, patient demographics, and in-hospital mortality.
Results. A total of 243 adult patients with urine cultures with
S. aureus
were identified for inclusion. The primary outcome was met, as there was a significant increase in blood culture orders between the pre-intervention and post-intervention groups (66.9 % vs 80.4 %). This difference was mainly driven by an increase for emergency department and urgent care patients (30.6 % vs 63.6 %). The inpatient group had a high baseline rate of blood culture orders that did not change significantly (80.0 % vs 84.7 %). There was no significant change in detection of SAB (23.5 % vs 32.7 %) or inpatient mortality (18.0 % vs 24.7 %).
Conclusion. Our study shows that a simple, purposeful comment appended to urine cultures with
S. aureus
leads to a significant increase in follow-up blood culture orders.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.