A Real-World Study on the Clinical Characteristics, Outcomes, and Relationship between Antibiotic Exposure and Clostridioides difficile Infection

• Published in: Antibiotics (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 2; p. 144
• Main Authors: Vintila, Bogdan Ioan, Arseniu, Anca Maria, Morgovan, Claudiu, Butuca, Anca, Bîrluțiu, Victoria, Dobrea, Carmen Maximiliana, Rus, Luca Liviu, Ghibu, Steliana, Bereanu, Alina Simona, Arseniu, Rares, Roxana Codru, Ioana, Sava, Mihai, Gabriela Gligor, Felicia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.02.2024
• Subjects: antibiotic exposure; Antibiotics; Bacteria; CDI; Ceftriaxone; Ciprofloxacin; Clostridioides difficile; Clostridioides difficile infections; Comorbidity; Emergency medical services; EudraVigilance; Exposure; Gram-negative bacteria; Gram-positive bacteria; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Infectious diseases; Intensive care; Internal medicine; Length of stay; Medical records; Meropenem; Nosocomial infection; Nosocomial infections; Patients; Piperacillin; Public health; single-center retrospective study; Tazobactam; Urogenital system; single-center retrospective study; EudraVigilance; CDI; Clostridioides difficile; antibiotic exposure; Clostridioides difficile infections; healthcare-associated infections
• ISSN: 2079-6382; 2079-6382
• DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics13020144

is a Gram-positive bacteria that causes nosocomial infections, significantly impacting public health. In the present study, we aimed to describe the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and relationship between antibiotic exposure and infection (CDI) in patients based on reports from two databases. Thus, we conducted a retrospective study of patients diagnosed with CDI from Sibiu County Clinical Emergency Hospital (SCCEH), Romania, followed by a descriptive analysis based on spontaneous reports submitted to the EudraVigilance (EV) database. From 1 January to 31 December 2022, we included 111 hospitalized patients with CDI from SCCEH. Moreover, 249 individual case safety reports (ICSRs) from EVs were analyzed. According to the data collected from SCCEH, CDI was most frequently reported in patients aged 65-85 years (66.7%) and in females (55%). In total, 71.2% of all patients showed positive medical progress. Most cases were reported in the internal medicine (n = 30, 27%), general surgery (n = 26, 23.4%), and infectious disease (n = 22, 19.8%) departments. Patients were most frequently exposed to ceftriaxone (CFT) and meropenem (MER). Also, in the EV database, most CDI-related ADRs were reported for CFT, PIP/TAZ (piperacillin/tazobactam), MER, and CPX (ciprofloxacin). Understanding the association between previous antibiotic exposure and the risk of CDI may help update antibiotic stewardship protocols and reduce the incidence of CDI by lowering exposure to high-risk antibiotics.