Professional paper

Therapeutic treatment of recurrent intestinal infection caused by Clostridium difficile - case report

Dobrinka Petković orcid.org/0000-0001-8111-3469 ; Opća županijska bolnica Požega, Odjel infektologije
Borislav Vuković orcid.org/0000-0001-8538-0054 ; Opća županijska bolnica Požega, Odjel neurologije

Abstract

Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) are the leading cause of nosocomial diarrhea, representing 20-30% of diarrhea caused by antibiotics, and the mortality rate of 1 to 5%. C. difficile also is the third cause of infections associated with health care. The incidence of CDI and recurrent infections is increasing in spite of effective treatments. The risk of recurrence after the first episode of CDI is about 25% and more than 45% after the first relapse. Metronidazole or vancomycin are recommended in the treatment of the first episode, and for the treatment of the second and following episodes of diseases vancomycin or fidaxomicin is recommended. However, standard antimicrobial therapy is not effective enough in the prevention and treatment of recurrent CDI. The recent emergence of the hypervirulent strain BI/NAP1/027 of C. difficile is a further major challenge in the search for new antimicrobial and alternative methods of treatment. The aim of this paper is to present the epidemiological and clinical features and therapeutic treatment of mild-to-moderate clinical form of recurrent enterocolitis caused by C. difficile in 83 year-old patient, and show the efficiency and safety of fidaxomicin, innovative macrocyclic bactericidal antibiotics, in the treatment of recurrent CDI which, in our case, demonstrated superior in comparison to vancomycin and metronidazole.

Keywords

recurrent infection C. difficile (CDI); risk factors; treatment; fidaxomicin

Hrčak ID:

177980

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/177980

Publication date:

20.3.2017.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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