Which Antimicrobial Treatment for Patients with Bloodstream Infection During ECMO Support?

link.springer.com February 10, 2025

Enterococcus sp. was incriminated in about a third of BSI among patients with ECMO support. High appropriateness would only be obtained with piperacilline/tazobactam or carbapenems in association with vancomycin while 3rd generation cephalosporin would have failed in the majority of BSI cases.

182 patients were included.

Main reason for ECMO support was ARDS, followed by cardiogenic shock and post-cardiotomy.

Half of the patients (51.9%) received early antimicrobial therapy.

Main incriminated microorganisms were Enterococcus sp. (37.4%), Enterobacterales (26.9%), coagulase negative Staphylococci (15.9%) and Gram negative bacilli (11.5%).

We conducted a retrospective observational study in 12 Europeans ICUs.