Abstract

Background: Traditionally, prolonged courses (4 to 6 weeks) of intravenous antibiotics have been recommended for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, largely because of concerns that infective endocarditis or other complications, such as deep infection foci or metastatic infections. The present study was conducted to assess prevalence of persistent bacteraemia in patients with non-staphylococcal infective endocarditis.
Materials & Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to assess prevalence of persistent bacteraemia in patients with non-staphylococcal infective endocarditis. Demographic data and clinical history were taken. Blood cultures were incubated. All statistical analyses were performed by using R software environment.
Results: A total 540 records were screened. Of these, 90 patients were eligible for inclusion. Of 90 patients, 77.77% (70 patients) received antimicrobial therapy effective against the causative microorganism within 24 h of the first culture. Out of 70 patients, only 5 (4.4%) had a positive blood culture after 2 days of effective antimicrobial therapy, meeting the definition of persistent bacteraemia: 3 patients (7.1%) with prosthetic valve endocarditis and 2 with native valve endocarditis. 4 out of 5 patients with persistent bacteraemia had Enterococcus faecalis endocarditis, the other 1 had endocarditis by non-HACEK-gram-negative bacteria.
Conclusion: The present study concluded that prevalence of persistent bacteraemia in patients with non-staphylococcal infective endocarditis was 7.14%.