Patients' Perspectives on Alternative Antibiotic Treatment Strategies for Infective Endocarditis Among Persons Who Inject Drugs.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Injection drug use is a leading and growing risk factor for infective endocarditis (IE), as evidenced by a marked national increase in hospitalizations for drug use-associated infective endocarditis (DUA-IE). The typical treatment approach for persons with DUA-IE is a 6-week inpatient course of intravenous antimicrobials. This approach is resource-intensive, requiring substantial hospital resources and lengthy stays. Alternative methods of antibiotic delivery for DUA-IE treatment have been proposed and piloted, but their acceptance among people who inject drugs is unknown.

Methods

Persons hospitalized with DUA-IE (N = 16) completed semi-structured interviews to identify facilitators and barriers to 3 proposed IE treatment options: (A) hospitalization for the entir

SUBMITTER: Cooper DK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12344736 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature