Baseline factors predicting the duration of intravenous antibiotic therapy for cellulitis in an outpatient setting

Excerpt

Skin and soft tissue infections are amongst the most common infections presenting to secondary care, and have been reported to be increasing in frequency [1, 2]. While many cases can be treated with oral antibiotics alone, some do require intravenous (IV) therapy; since cellulitis is rarely life- or limb-threatening, a high proportion of these cases may be suitable for outpatient parenteral therapy. However, this may mean that patients are reviewed by a physician less frequently than as an inpatient, and it would, therefore, be useful to have some means of predicting the likely duration of IV therapy to aid decisions such as the frequency of medical reviews or the most appropriate type of IV access. While previous studies have looked at factors affecting the duration of hospitalisation for cellulitis [3‐7], none, to our knowledge, have investigated factors associated with the duration of IV therapy as an outpatient. We, therefore, retrospectively analysed data from the Outpatient and Home Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OHPAT) service at our institution to ascertain factors predictive of the duration of IV therapy for cellulitis. …