Antibiotic Therapy Helps Reduce Infection among Hemodialysis Patients

An antibiotic therapy for catheter-related bloodstreams could provide much needed relief for patients undergoing hemodialysis--a treatment for kidney failure.

Researchers at the Nephrology and Hypertension department at Henry Ford found that a low-dose "lock" solution of gentamicin/citrate successfully reduced mortality rate by up to 68 percent compared to a heparin solution-a blood-clotting therapy that's considered the standard of care. Furthermore, findings showed that the gentamicin/citrate solution was associated with a 73 percent reduction in bloodstream infection compared to the heparin treatment.

These findings promote the possibility that antibiotic therapy increases the success rate of hemodialysis treatment.

"Advances in treatment have been elusive over the years. Perhaps our study can be a starting point to change the paradigm as a standard of care," said Jerry Yee, M.D., division head of Nephrology and Hypertension at Henry Ford and the study's senior author, in the press release. "The gentamicin/citrate solution was shown to be both safe and effective."

Researchers also performed an observational study that involved 749 patients from September 2008 to June 2011. From the sample, 427 patients were asked to take part in the heparin study arm while the other 322 were subjects in the gentamicin/citrate arm. All solutions were administered using an antibiotic locking-technique that prevents catheter clotting and reduces the risk of infection.

As previous studies have shown the benefits of using an antibiotic locking strategy for reducing blood stream infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Infectious Diseases Society of America do not recommend the use of the solutions due to potential antimicrobial resistance with gentamincin/citrate.