Elena Carrara, Alessia Savoldi, Laura J.V. Piddock, Francois Franceschi, Sally Ellis, Mike Sharland, Adrian John Brink, Patrick N.A. Harris, Gabriel Levy-Hara, Anusha Rohit, Constantinos Tsioutis, Hiba Zayyad, Christian Giske, Margherita Chiamenti, Damiano Bragantini, Elda Righi, Anna Gorska, Evelina Tacconelli

Clinical Microbiology and Infection

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2021.05.002

Abstract

Objectives: Optimal treatment of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CR-GNB) infections is uncertain because of the lack of good-quality evidence and the limited effectiveness of available anti-biotics. The aim of this survey was to investigate clinicians’ prescribing strategies for treating CR-GNB infections worldwide.

Methods: A 36-item questionnaire was developed addressing the following aspects of antibiotic pre-scribing: respondent’s background, diagnostic and therapeutic availability, preferred antibiotic strategies and rationale for selecting combination therapy. Prescribers were recruited following the snowball sampling approach, and a post-stratification correction with inverse proportional weights was used to adjust the sample’s representativeness.

Results: A total of 1012 respondents from 95 countries participated in the survey. Overall, 298 (30%) of the respondents had local guidelines for treating CR-GNB at their facility and 702 (71%) had access to Infectious Diseases consultation, with significant discrepancies according to country economic status: 85% (390/502) in high-income countries versus 59% (194/283) in upper-medium-income countries and 30% (118/196) in lower-middle-income countries/lower-income-countries). Targeted regimens varied widely, ranging from 40 regimens for CR-Acinetobacter spp. to more than 100 regimens for CR-Entero-bacteriaceae. Although the majority of respondents acknowledged the lack of evidence behind this choice, dual combination was the preferred treatment scheme and carbapenem-polymyxin was the most prescribed regimen, irrespective of pathogen and infection source. Respondents noticeably disagreed around the meaning of ‘combination therapy’ with 20% (150/783) indicating the simple addition of multiple compounds, 42% (321/783) requiring the presence of in vitro activity and 38% (290/783) requiring in vitro synergism.