All Posts Tagged With: "intravascular devices"

Excerpt:

Although intravenous antibiotic therapy is recommended for
neurologic Lyme disease, safety concerns have been raised about
treatment beyond 30 days in patients with persistent neurologic
symptoms. The goal of our study was to evaluate the safety of
extended intravenous antibiotic therapy in patients referred for
treatment of neurologic Lyme disease.

METHODS: We enrolled 200
consecutive patients with significant neurologic symptoms and
positive testing for Borrelia burgdorferi. Patients were treated
with intravenous antibiotics using various intravascular devices
(IVDs). Standard IVD care was administered to all patients, and
monitoring for medication reactions and IVD complications was
performed on a weekly basis.

RESULTS: The mean length of intravenous
antibiotic treatment was 118 days (range, 7-750 days)
representing 23,654 IVD-days. Seven patients (3.5%) experienced
allergic reactions to the antibiotic medication, and two patients
(1.0%) had gallbladder toxicity. IVD complications occurred in 15
patients (7.5%) representing an incidence of 0.63 per 1,000
IVD-days. The IVD problems occurred an average of 81 days after
initiation of treatment (range, 7-240 days). There were six
suspected line infections for an incidence of 0.25 per 1,000
IVD-days. Only one of the IVD infections was confirmed, and no
resistant organisms were cultured from any patient. None of the
IVD complications were fatal.

CONCLUSION: Prolonged intravenous antibiotic therapy is
associated with low morbidity and no IVD-related mortality in
patients referred for treatment of neurologic Lyme disease. With
proper IVD care, the risk of extended antibiotic therapy in these
patients appears to be low.