No abstract

The characteristics of and prognosis for nosocomial spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) and bacteremia were examined in a prospective study that included data from 194 consecutive episodes of SBP and 119 episodes of bacteremia, 93.3% of which were nosocomial, in 200 hospitalized cirrhotic patients. Gram-positive pathogens were predominant (70% of the total) among isolates from nosocomial infections; the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was 24.8%. Nosocomial and staphylococcal infections were associated with a higher mortality rate than were community-acquired infections (P=.0255) and nonstaphylococcal infections (P<.001), respectively. In comparison with non-MRSA infections, MRSA infections were more likely to recur and occurred in a greater number of sites other than ascitic fluid and blood (P=.0004). Older age (P=.0048), higher Child-Pugh score (P=.0011), and infection with staphylococci (P=.0031) were independently associated with a higher mortality rate. The emergence of MRSA is important because of the recurrence and poor outcome associated with infection with such organisms.

No abstract

We performed a 5-year retrospective study to evaluate the effect of long-term administration of norfloxacin on the epidemiology of severe hospital-acquired infections in patients with advanced cirrhosis. Sixty-seven episodes of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and 60 episodes of bacteremia occurred in, respectively, 46 patients (group 1a) and 52 patients (group 1b) who did not receive norfloxacin, while 23 and 17 episodes occurred in 21 patients (group 2a) and 17 patients (group 2b) during or within 10 days after long-term administration of norfloxacin. Enterobacteriaceae were more prevalent in groups 1a and 1b than in the other two groups (P < .001 and P < .01, respectively); conversely, staphylococci were more prevalent in groups 2a and 2b (P < .001 and P < .05, respectively). The rate of staphylococcal resistance to methicillin was 53.6% in groups 1a and 1b and 77.3% in groups 2a and 2b. We conclude that long-term norfloxacin administration to cirrhotic patients reduces the risk of gram-negative infections but increases the risk of severe hospital-acquired staphylococcal infections and of high-level resistance to antibiotics.