Bacteremia and fungemia occurring during antimicrobial prophylaxis with ofloxacin in cancer patients: risk factors, etiology and outcome.

The authors analyzed 27 breakthrough bacteremias occurring during ofloxacin prophylaxis in afebrile neutropenia over 7 years in 9989 admissions and 979 bacteremic and fungemic episodes in a National Cancer Center in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The most frequently isolated organisms in breakthrough bacteremias were gram-positive (71.3%), mainly coagulase-negative staphylococci (41.3%), enterococci (9.2%) and Corynebacteria (9.2%), followed by gram-negative rods-Pseudomonas aeruginosa (13.2%) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (9.2%). The outcome of breakthrough bacteremias during ofloxacin prophylaxis was not associated with the underlying disease, neutropenia, catheter insertion or resistance, but only with multiple risk factors. A higher failure rate was observed in those patients having a catheter infected with a resistant organism and during neutropenia. No patients with Hickman catheter were included in the study. Patients with mixed breakthrough bacteremia due to gram-negative and gram-positive organisms had higher failure rates than those with monomicrobial bacteremia. Catheter extraction and rapid institution of intravenous antibiotics in combination should be administered in breakthrough bacteremia.