Predictive utility of swab screening for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus in selection of empiric antibiotics for Enterococcus sterile-site infections: a retrospective cohort study.

Predictive utility of swab screening for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus in selection of empiric antibiotics for Enterococcus sterile-site infections: a retrospective cohort study. CMAJ Open. 2017 Aug 15;5(3):E632-E637 Authors: Brasg I, Elligsen M, MacFadden D, Daneman N Abstract BACKGROUND: Swab screening for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) is used to identify VRE carriers and thus prevent transmission of this organism. We tested whether screening results could have unintended benefits in predicting the vancomycin susceptibility of subsequent Enterococcus infections experienced by these patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all patients admitted to a large tertiary care hospital between 2010 and 2015 who underwent swab screening for VRE before experiencing an Enterococcus sterile-site infection. We derived test characteristics using the screening result as the test variable predicting the presence or absence of vancomycin resistance in the sterile-site Enterococcus species. RESULTS: Culture results for sterile-site samples were positive for Enterococcus for 619 patients during the study period. Of these, 488 (79%) had previously undergone VRE screening. A total of 19 (4%) of the 488 screening results were positive for VRE, and 10 (2%) of the sterile-site Enterococcus isolates were resistant to vancomycin. The overall specificity of VRE swabs was 97% (95% confidence interval [CI] 96...
Source: cmaj - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: CMAJ Open Source Type: research