Is Short-Course Antibiotic Therapy Suitable for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bloodstream Infections in Onco-hematology Patients With Febrile Neutropenia? Results of a Multi-institutional Analysis

Abstract

Background Several studies have suggested that short-course antibiotic therapy was effective in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) bloodstream infections (BSI) in immunocompetent patients. While similar studies in patients with hematological malignancies were rare. Methods This cohort study included onco-hematology patients at two hematology centers in China. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to balance the confounding factors. Multivariate regression model was used to evaluate the effect of short-course antibiotic therapy on clinical outcomes. Results 434 patients met eligibility criteria (short-course, 7-11 days, n=229; prolonged, 12-21 days, n=205). In the weighted cohort, the univariate and multivariate analysis indicated that short course antibiotic therapy had similar outcomes to the prolonged course. The recurrent PA infection at any site or mortality within 30 days of completing therapy occurred in 8 (3.9%) patients in the short-course group and in 10 (4.9%) in the prolonged-course group (p = 0.979). The recurrent infection within 90 days occurred in 20 (9.8%) patients in the short-course group and in 13 (6.3%) patients in the prolonged-course group (p =0.139), and the recurrent fever within 7 days occurred in 17 (8.3%) patients in the short-course group and in 15 (7.4%) in the prolonged-course group (p = 0.957). On average, patients who received short-course antibiotic therapy spent 3.3 fewer days in the hospital (p<0.001). Conclusions In the study, short-course therapy was non-inferior to prolonged-course therapy in terms of clinical outcomes. However, due to its biases and limitations, further prospective randomized controlled trials are needed to generalize our findings.