Impact of oral vancomycin treatment duration on rate of recurrence in patients requiring concurrent systemic antibiotics.

Background: There is a paucity of data guiding treatment duration of oral vancomycin for infection (CDI) in patients requiring concomitant systemic antibiotics.

Objectives: To evaluate prescribing practices of vancomycin for CDI in patients that required concurrent systemic antibiotics and to determine whether a prolonged duration of vancomycin (>14 days), compared to a standard duration (10-14 days), decreased CDI recurrence.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we evaluated adult hospitalized patients with an initial episode of CDI who were treated with vancomycin and who received overlapping systemic antibiotics for >72 hours.