Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy for infections with methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Objectives: As increasing numbers of patients are being treated with outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), it becomes ever more important to ascertain the risks and benefits of such treatment for patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 1,515 patients with methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus infections who were treated with outpatient parenteral antimicrobial monotherapy. All patients were included in the adverse drug reaction analysis; 1,252 were evaluable for purposes of evaluating treatment efficacy.

Results: The six antibiotics most frequently used in this study (ceftriaxone, cefazolin, vancomycin, oxacillin, nafcillin, and clindamycin) appeared to be equivalent in achieving the desired efficacy outcome.

Conclusions: Vancomycin was associated with a significantly greater number of side effects than was ceftriaxone, cefazolin, or oxacillin, and nafcillin was associated with a significantly greater number of adverse events than ceftriaxone.