Evaluating Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) treatment duration in hematology/oncology patients receiving concurrent non-CDI antibiotics.

Abstract

PURPOSE\nTo determine the impact of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) treatment duration on CDI recurrence in hematology/oncology patients receiving concurrent non-CDI antibiotics.\n\n\nPATIENTS AND METHODS\nThis multi-site, retrospective study examined hematology/oncology patients age ≥18\u2009years hospitalized with active CDI who received ≥1 dose of concurrent non-CDI antibiotics between September 2013 and June 2019. All patients were classified by two definitions for statistical analysis: standard (10-14\u2009days) versus prolonged (>14\u2009days) duration of CDI treatment and non-extended (≤24\u2009hours after stopping non-CDI antibiotics) versus extended (>24\u2009hours after stopping non-CDI antibiotics) CDI treatment. Primary outcome was CDI recurrence within 180\u2009days of completing CDI treatment. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay (LOS) as well as mortality and incidence of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) infections at 180\u2009days.\n\n\nRESULTS\nOf the 198 patients included, 112 were classified as prolonged versus 86 standard duration and 138 were classified as extended versus 60 non-extended duration. After accounting for demographic differences, no difference existed in the primary outcome of CDI recurrence in either prolonged versus standard or extended versus non-extended analysis (all p\u2009>\u20090.05). Patients who received prolonged versus standard CDI treatment had longer LOS (p\u2009<\u20090.0001) while no difference existed in extended versus non-extended (p\u2009>\u20090.05). No difference in mortality existed in prolonged versus standard (p\u2009>\u20090.05) while those who received extended versus non-extended CDI treatment had significantly lower mortality (p\u2009=\u20090.0008).\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nNeither prolonging CDI treatment beyond standard duration nor extending duration beyond end of non-CDI antibiotics was associated with decreased CDI recurrence rate.