Home intravenous antibiotic therapy. A practical management approach for the 1980s.

The development of antibiotics with extended duration of activity, combined with the social and economic changes in the practice of medicine in recent years, has resulted in use of home intravenous (IV) antibiotic therapy to treat a wide range of infections in selected patients. At Lovelace Medical Center, infections of the musculoskeletal system have accounted for two thirds of the cases for which such therapy is used. First-and third-generation cephalosporins have been used most often and at our institution are almost identical in terms of actual charges to the patient. Although several important medicolegal and ethical problems have yet to be resolved, home IV antibiotic therapy has been shown to be safe, effective, and capable of reducing medical costs to both patients and health care providers.