Hospital Medicine Alert – July 1, 2012
July 1, 2012
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Linezolid for Nosocomial MRSA Pneumonia: A Better Option?
Linezolid was non-inferior to vancomycin in patients with nosocomially acquired MRSA pneumonia. Although mortality was similar among linezolid- and vancomycin-treated patients, several outcomes (such as clinical cure and microbiological cure) favored linezolid. -
Should Cefazolin Be Preferred Treatment for Methicillin- susceptible S. aureus Bacteremia Instead of Nafcillin?
In a retrospective, propensity-score-matched, case-control study, investigators compared clinical outcomes and drug tolerabilities between nafcillin and cefazolin in the treatment of MSSA bacteremia. The authors found that cefazolin was as efficacious as nafcillin in the treatment of MSSA bacteremia while causing fewer adverse drug events. -
Improving Patient Safety During Postoperative Handoffs
This comprehensive review on postoperative patient handoffs confirms that they are high-risk events associated with adverse patient outcomes, and permits the identification of several strategies likely to improve the process despite the incompleteness and other limitations of the existing literature. -
Hospital Cultural and Organizational Characteristics Correlate with Important Mortality Differences in Managing Acute Myocardial Infarction
This study of 537 hospitals found that those with the lowest mortality rates for acute myocardial infarction have management strategies that differ in important ways from those at hospitals with higher acute myocardial infarction mortality. -
Audit Feedback Reduced Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use and Incidence of C. difficile Infections
Institution of a formal audit and feedback program resulted in a decrease in use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and a 31% reduction in cases of Clostridium difficile infection. -
Cardiac Device-Related Infective Endocarditis
This study reports data from the International Collaboration on Endocarditis-Prospective Cohort Study (ICE-PCS) on the clinical characteristics of infective endocarditis related to pacemakers and ICDs. ICE-PCS collected data on 3284 patients with endocarditis from 64 centers in 28 countries in a central database.