New study on the efficacy and safety of continuous infusions with elastomeric pumps for OPAT 

New study on the efficacy and safety of continuous infusions with elastomeric pumps for OPAT 

22nd August 2017

A recent study has been published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy to explore the ‘Efficacy and safety of continuous infusions with elastomeric pumps for outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT)’. The study focuses on patients with “difficult-to-treat infections” who require antibiotics over a prolonged period of time, “but are otherwise well enough to be treated as outpatients.”

The aim of the study was to assess elastomerics as the mode to continuously administer antibiotics, specifically flucloxacilian, cefapime, vancomycin and piperacillian/tazobactum.

Both the clinical outcomes and the adverse events, as well as the antibiotic plasma concentrations were recorded for all 150 outpatients included in the study. A brief overview of the results and conclusions are listed below:

Results: the highlights

• Cure was achieved in 143 out 150 patients (95%) 3 months after the end of treatment
• Four patients needed unexpected readmission and three had a relapse

Conclusions:

Continuous infusions of flucloxacillin, cefepime, vancomycin and piperacillin/tazobactam using elastomeric pumps seem to be an effective and safe approach to treat outpatients. The number of treatment successes was very high and adverse events occurred at a similar rate as reported by other OPAT centres. The measured antibiotic plasma concentrations confirmed adequate drug concentration exposure for the vast majority of patients.

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