Abstract
•Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) can be used safely in the management of infective endocarditis (IE).•IE caused by high-virulence organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus can be managed with OPAT.•Patients with prosthetic valve IE can be considered for OPAT.•OPAT has the potential to reduce the impact of IE on over-burdened health systems.
We examined the safety and clinical outcomes of outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) for patients with infective endocarditis (IE) in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Demographic and clinical data were collected from all adult patients treated for IE over 5 years. Outcomes were stratified by receipt of at least partial OPAT vs entirely hospital-based parenteral therapy.
There were 172 episodes of IE between 2014 and 2018. OPAT was administered in 115 cases (67%) for a median of 27 days after a median of 12 days of inpatient treatment. In the OPAT cohort, viridans group streptococci were the commonest causative pathogens (35%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (25%) and Enterococcus faecalis (11%). There were six (5%) antibiotic-related adverse events and 26 (23%) readmissions in the OPAT treatment group. Mortality in OPAT patients was 6% (7/115) at 6 months and 10% (11/114) at 1 year and for patients receiving wholly inpatient parenteral therapy was 56% (31/56) and 58% (33/56), respectively. Three patients (3%) in the OPAT group had a relapse of IE during the 1-year follow-up period.
OPAT can be used safely in patients with IE, even in selected cases with complicated or difficult-to-treat infections.