Henry Ford Researchers Find Antibiotic Therapy Effective in Hemodialysis Patients

1385

tResearchers at Henry Ford Health System have found an antibiotic therapy resulted in 73 percent fewer catheter-related bloodstream infections in hemodialysis patients and reduced mortality by 68 percent.

tIn a study that spanned four years and involved 749 patients, researchers compared gentamicin/citrate and heparin, a blood-clotting therapy that has long been the standard of care. The gentamicin/citrate solution was shown to be both safe and effective, says Dr. Jerry Yee, head of nephrology and hypertension at Henry Ford and the study’s senior author.

t“Advances in treatment have been elusive over the years,” he says. “Perhaps our study can be a starting point to change the paradigm as a standard of care.”

tInfection is the second leading cause of death in hemodialysis patients, with catheter-related bloodstream infection and infection-related mortality showing little improvement over the past 20 years, Yee says. Hemodialysis is the most common method used to treat advanced and permanent kidney failure.

tThough the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Infectious Diseases Society of America do not recommend the use of these new types of solutions due to potential resistance with gentamicin/citrate, Henry Ford researchers found that gentamicin resistance rates decreased twofold.

tThe findings are published online in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and will appear in the journal’s July print edition.