Intravenous-only or Intravenous Transitioned to Oral Antimicrobials for Enterobacteriaceae-Associated Bacteremic Urinary Tract Infection

ObjectivesTo characterize antibiotic regimens utilized for bacteremic Enterobacteriaceae urinary tract infections and assess treatment failure associated with intravenous-only compared to intravenous transitioned to oral antibiotic treatment. DesignRetrospective cohort. SettingsTertiary care academic medical center. Patients241 adult patients hospitalized between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2015, with positive blood and urine cultures with the same Enterobacteriaceae pathogen. Main ResultsHospital days on antibiotics as well as length of stay were less in the group treated with any oral antibiotics (intravenous/oral, median 5 [IQR 3-7] days vs intravenous-only antibiotics 6 [4-10] days, p<0.001; length of stay for intravenous/oral 4.6 [3.1-7.8] days vs intravenous-only 7.1 [4.0-17.5] days, p<0.001). No statistically significant difference was found in the composite outcome of treatment failure in patients who received intravenous-only antibiotics versus intravenous/oral antibiotics for the treatment of bacteremic urinary tract infections (intravenous-only 3.8% [95% CI: 1.0-9.4%] failure; intravenous/oral 8.2% [95% CI: 4.1-14.1%] failure; p=0.19). ConclusionsIntravenous transitioned to oral treatment (intravenous/oral) was associated with a shorter length of stay and fewer hospital antibiotic days compared with intravenous-only therapy. Transitioning from intravenous to oral antibiotic therapy is a viable treatment option to consider for patients with bacteremic Enterobacteriaceae urinary tract infection.