Aaron Hunt presents poster at IDWeek 2023 – Management and Outcomes of Patients Referred to a Specialty Clinic for C. difficile Infection
A retrospective chart review was conducted on all new patients presenting to the Loyola University Medical Center C. difficile clinic for 2021 and 2022. A total of 83 new patients presented to the CDI clinic. Patients presenting with recurrent CDI accounted for 75% of cases (62/83), with 40% (33/83) of patients having two or more recurrences. The most common decision for initial management was to not give further antimicrobials and either monitor for symptoms (48%) or pursue alternate diagnosis (24%).Vancomycin or fidaxomicin tapers were selected 84% (36/43) of the time. Overall, patients experienced a recurrence rate of 16.7% (11/66) at 60 days. Expert management of CDI through a dedicated clinic resulted in low recurrence for high-risk patients and 24% of patients were spared unnecessary antimicrobial exposure.