Comparative Study

. 2025 Mar;25(3):265-275.

doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00507-3. Epub 2024 Oct 10.

Adjunctive linezolid versus clindamycin for toxin inhibition in β-lactam-treated patients with invasive group A streptococcal infections in 195 US hospitals from 2016 to 2021: a retrospective cohort study with target trial emulation

Collaborators, Affiliations

Collaborators

NIH-Antimicrobial Resistance Outcomes Research Initiative:
Jennifer Adjemian, James Baggs, Edward Cox, Robert L Danner, John Dekker, John Farley, Anthony Fiore, David Hooper, John Jernigan, Amber Jessup, Sameer Kadri-Rodriguez, Eili Klein, Michael Klompas, Elaine Lai, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Tara Palmore, John H Powers, D Rebecca Prevots, Chanu Rhee, Emily Ricotta, Arjun Srinivasan, Jeffrey R Strich, Anthony Suffredini

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA. Electronic address: ahmed.babiker@emory.edu.
² Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Critical Care Medicine Branch, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Ascension Saint Francis Hospital, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁵ Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁶ Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁷ Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Critical Care Medicine Branch, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA. Electronic address: Sameer.kadri@nih.gov.

PMID: 39396526
PMCID: PMC11871996 (available on 2026-03-01)
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00507-3

Comparative Study

Adjunctive linezolid versus clindamycin for toxin inhibition in β-lactam-treated patients with invasive group A streptococcal infections in 195 US hospitals from 2016 to 2021: a retrospective cohort study with target trial emulation

Ahmed Babiker et al. Lancet Infect Dis. 2025 Mar.

. 2025 Mar;25(3):265-275.

doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00507-3. Epub 2024 Oct 10.

Collaborators

NIH-Antimicrobial Resistance Outcomes Research Initiative:
Jennifer Adjemian, James Baggs, Edward Cox, Robert L Danner, John Dekker, John Farley, Anthony Fiore, David Hooper, John Jernigan, Amber Jessup, Sameer Kadri-Rodriguez, Eili Klein, Michael Klompas, Elaine Lai, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Tara Palmore, John H Powers, D Rebecca Prevots, Chanu Rhee, Emily Ricotta, Arjun Srinivasan, Jeffrey R Strich, Anthony Suffredini

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA. Electronic address: ahmed.babiker@emory.edu.
² Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Critical Care Medicine Branch, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Ascension Saint Francis Hospital, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁵ Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁶ Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁷ Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA; Critical Care Medicine Branch, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA. Electronic address: Sameer.kadri@nih.gov.

PMID: 39396526
PMCID: PMC11871996 (available on 2026-03-01)
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00507-3

Erratum in

Correction to Lancet Infect Dis 2024; published online Oct 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00507-3.
[No authors listed] [No authors listed] Lancet Infect Dis. 2024 Dec;24(12):e737. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00732-1. Epub 2024 Nov 4. Lancet Infect Dis. 2024. PMID: 39510113 No abstract available.

Abstract

Background: Adjunctive clindamycin use is associated with survival in invasive group A streptococcus (GAS) infections but increasing clindamycin resistance in GAS has called into question its durability for this indication. Linezolid also inhibits GAS toxin and virulence factor production, but clinical efficacy data remain sparse.

Methods: We retrospectively emulated a target multicentre, non-blinded, non-inferiority trial to assess the efficacy of adjunctive linezolid compared with clindamycin in adult inpatients with invasive GAS infection treated with a β-lactam using the PINC AI database between 2016 and 2021. Patients were eligible if they had a monomicrobial GAS culture and received adjunctive therapy within 3 days of culture either concurrently or after β-lactam initiation and completed at least 3 days of β-lactam therapy. The primary outcome was adjusted risk ratio (aRR) of in-hospital mortality assessed by overlap-weighting using propensity scores. Secondary outcomes were length of stay among survivors and Clostridium difficile infection.

Findings: Of 1095 β-lactam-treated patients with GAS, 829 (76%) received clindamycin and 266 (24%) received linezolid. In the overlap weighted cohort, the receipt of linezolid was not associated with a statistically significant different aRR of in-hospital mortality compared with clindamycin (linezolid: 9·8% [26/266] vs clindamycin: 7·0% [58/829]; aRR: 0·92 [95% CI 0·42 to 1·43]; p=0·76). The risk difference was -0·005 (95% CI -0·05 to 0·04; p=0·81) and fell within the non-inferiority margin of 0·05. The primary analysis results were consistent across important subgroups and sensitivity analyses. Among survivors, median length of stay (adjusted ratio 0·96 [95% CI 0·16 to 0·08]; p=0·47) and C difficile infection risk (aRR 1·76 [95% CI 0·37 to 1·75]; p=0·29) were not statistically significantly different between the two groups.

Interpretation: In this emulated trial of adult patients with invasive GAS infections treated with β-lactam, linezolid appeared non-inferior to clindamycin suggesting linezolid as an alternative for adjunctive antitoxin therapy.

Funding: The Intramural Research Program of the US National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests AB has served on a clinical advisory board for Beckman Coulter. AL has served on a Pfizer ad hoc board on Gram-negative resistance. All other authors declare no competing interests.

References

1. Babiker A, Kadri SS. ICU Management of Invasive β-Hemolytic Streptococcal Infections. Infect Dis Clin North Am 2022;36(4):861–87. - PubMed
1. Babiker A, Li X, Lai YL, Strich JR, Warner S, Sarzynski S, et al. Effectiveness of adjunctive clindamycin in β-lactam antibiotic-treated patients with invasive β-haemolytic streptococcal infections in US hospitals: a retrospective multicentre cohort study. Lancet Infect Dis 2021;21(5):697–710. - PMC - PubMed
1. Andreoni F, Zürcher C, Tarnutzer A, Schilcher K, Neff A, Keller N, et al. Clindamycin Affects Group A Streptococcus Virulence Factors and Improves Clinical Outcome. J Infect Dis 2017;215(2):269–77. - PubMed
1. Stevens DL, Gibbons AE, Bergstrom R, Winn V. The Eagle effect revisited: efficacy of clindamycin, erythromycin, and penicillin in the treatment of streptococcal myositis. The Journal of infectious diseases. 1988;158(1):23–8. - PubMed
1. Stevens DL, Bisno AL, Chambers HF, Dellinger EP, Goldstein EJ, Gorbach SL, et al. Practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of skin and soft tissue infections: 2014 update by the infectious diseases society of America. Clin Infect Dis 2014;59(2):147–59. - PubMed

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Adjunctive linezolid versus clindamycin for toxin inhibition in β-lactam-treated patients with invasive group A streptococcal infections in 195 US hospitals from 2016 to 2021: a retrospective cohort study with target trial emulation

Collaborators

Affiliations

Adjunctive linezolid versus clindamycin for toxin inhibition in β-lactam-treated patients with invasive group A streptococcal infections in 195 US hospitals from 2016 to 2021: a retrospective cohort study with target trial emulation

Authors

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Affiliations

Erratum in

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Conflict of interest statement

References

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