Comparing Injecting Drug Users with Others Receiving Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy

Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy Among People Who Inject Drugs: A Review of the Literature

“…Two studies [ 11 , 12 ] were prospective studies without any comparison groups, and all others were retrospective. Six were conducted in the United States [ 13–18 ], 2 in Canada [ 11 , 19 ], 1 in Australia [ 20 ], and 1 in Singapore [ 12 ]. The 10 studies included a total of 800 individuals with discreet OPAT episodes.…”

“…The average proportion of males ranged from 53% to 89.7%. Most studies primarily focused on individuals with a recent history of injection drug use (IDU), defined as IDU within the past 4 weeks [ 14 , 18 ], past 3 months [ 13 , 20 ], or past 12 months [ 12 , 15 ]. Other studies indicated that the participants were engaging in current IDU or had a history of IDU [ 16 , 17 , 19 ].…”

“…However, the studies did not report any other details of the participants’ substance use or psychiatric history. Three studies also included a comparison group of patients completing OPAT who were not PWID [ 11 , 18 , 20 ]. Dobson et al they identified 6493 cases of OPAT from those who were not PWID at their institution as a comparison group [ 20 ].…”

“…Three studies also included a comparison group of patients completing OPAT who were not PWID [ 11 , 18 , 20 ]. Dobson et al they identified 6493 cases of OPAT from those who were not PWID at their institution as a comparison group [ 20 ]. Vazirian et al identified 3 control patients for each study patient, by propensity score matching on age, sex, OPAT year, and OPAT diagnosis [ 18 ].…”

“…The disposition of the participants following the hospital admission varied across studies, but discharge to home was the most common [ 12 , 14 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 20 ], followed by discharge to a medical respite facility [ 13 , 17 , 19 ], skilled nursing facility [ 14 , 15 , 18 ], residential addiction treatment facility [ 16 ], or group home [ 17 ]. Patients who were discharged to home received antibiotics either at scheduled visits to an infusion center [ 12 , 15 ] or within the home with the assistance of a visiting nurse [ 13 , 15 , 20 ]. The durable venous access in all studies was a PICC, except in the study by Dobson et al, in which subclavian central venous catheters and implantable ports were also utilized [ 20 ].…”