THE INFECTIONS AND ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH SOLID TUMORS IN PALLIATIVE CARE
Abstract
Background: Patients in the palliative stadium of cancer disease are frequently exposed to infections. Introducing the antibiotic therapy to those patients is a dilemma: what benefit do they have from antimicrobial therapy regarding their short lifespan and the resource consumption of these medicines.
Objectives: We researched the most common sites and causes of infections and estimated the price and the efficiency of antibiotic therapy with respect to difficulty reduction caused by infections.
Methods: The prospective study was performed on patients hospitalized at Palliative care department in the year 2015. The antibiotic therapy, whose efficiency was estimated by the loss of symptoms related to infection, is included to 78 patients who underwent laboratory testing (Le and CRP) because they had verified clinical signs of infection.
Results: 109 causes of infection were found. Most of them were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginisa and Staphylococcus aureus. The most used antibiotics were gentamicin (21.1%), meropenem (20.2%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (11.9%), amikacin and Cefepime (11.1%). The success of antibiotic therapy was 61.5%. The mortality is registered at 16.7% patients during antibiotic treatment. For antibiotic treatment, 5329.69 € (68.33 €/ pat.) is spent. The parenteral antibiotic application was used in 75.2% of cases, and peroral in 24.7% of cases. Side-effects of anti-infective therapy were recorded in 3 (3.85%) of 78 patients treated with antibiotics.
Conclusion: Antibiotic therapy reduces the intensity of difficulties in patients with bacterial infections with rare side-effects. Therefore, the main principles of palliative treatment – reduce the suffering and not to harm patients, are satisfied.
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