Publications by authors named "Serge Alfandari"

The nutritional status after bone marrow transplant plays an important role in the outcome of patients. Post-allograft dietary instructions are therefore essential to ensure quality nutrition while minimizing the risk of infection. For patients, this is one of their main concerns on discharge from hospital.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Freshwater sports involve a wide range of practices leading to contact with soil and water that can entail exposure to agents of potential infectious diseases. The pathogens can be multiple (bacteria, parasites, viruses, fungi), and be either well-known or more unfamiliar and exotic. We conducted a literature review to describe various infections contracted following exposure to water and mud during freshwater sport activities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In geriatrics, explicit criteria for potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) are useful for optimizing drug use.

Objective: To produce an expert consensus on explicit definitions of antibiotic-PIPs for hospitalized older patients.

Methods: We conducted a Delphi survey involving French experts on antibiotic stewardship in hospital settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Chronic disseminated candidiasis (CDC) classically occurs after profound and prolonged neutropenia. The aim of the CANHPARI study was to assess the clinical value of adding F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT to conventional radiology for initial and subsequent evaluations of CDC.

Materials And Methods: A pilot prospective study was conducted in 23 French onco-hematological centers from 2013 to 2017 (NCT01916057).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Letermovir is the first approved drug for cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection prophylaxis in adult patients who are CMV positive undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). Because CMV infection risk varies from patient to patient, we evaluated whether a risk-based strategy could be effective. In this single-center study, all consecutive adult patients who were CMV positive and underwent allo-HCT between 2015 and 2021 were included.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Infections caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBLE) remain a public health challenge.

Aim: We traced the evolution of antibiotics prescribed for patients with ESBLE-healthcare associated infections (ESBLE-HAI) between 2012 and 2017, with a specific focus on treatments for lower urinary tract infections (LUTI).

Methods: We used the 2012 and 2017 French point prevalence survey data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gastro-intestinal mucormycosis (GIMM) is a highly lethal invasive fungal disease partly because of a challenging diagnosis. An allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipient experienced bowel obstruction caused by slowly-evolutive gastro-intestinal mucormycosis and was successfully treated with surgery and antifungal therapy. Pathological findings revealed a granuloma without angio-invasion, which is unusual in this fungal disease and has incomplete similarities with an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antifungal stewardship programmes are needed in healthcare facilities to limit the overuse or misuse of antifungals, which are responsible for an increase in antifungal resistance. Core recommendations for antifungal stewardship were published by the Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided a Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs checklist. The recommendations offer global core elements for best practices in antifungal stewardship, but do not provide a framework for the implementation of antifungal stewardship programmes in healthcare facilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are increasingly being used by clinicians to support antibiotic decision making in infection management. However, coexisting CDSSs often target different types of physicians, infectious situations, and patient profiles. The objective of this study was to perform an up-to-date inventory of French language CDSSs currently used in community and hospital settings for antimicrobial prescribing and to describe their main characteristics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The role of infection and chronic inflammation in plasma cell disorders (PCD) has been well-described. Despite not being a diagnostic criterion, infection is a common complication of most PCD and represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in this population. As immune-based therapeutic agents are being increasingly used in multiple myeloma, it is important to recognize their impact on the epidemiology of infections and to identify preventive measures to improve outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Antibiotic use (ABU) surveillance in healthcare facilities (HCFs) is essential to guide stewardship. Two methods are recommended: antibiotic consumption (ABC), expressed as the number of DDD/1000 patient-days; and prevalence of antibiotic prescription (ABP) measured through point prevalence surveys. However, no evidence is provided about whether they lead to similar conclusions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We have presented a practical guide developed by a working group of experts in infectious diseases and hematology to summarize the different recommendations issued by the different international groups on antifungal agents used for hematology patients. In addition, a working group of experts in the domains of nephrology, hepatology, and drug interactions have reported their different recommendations when administering antifungal agents, including dose adjustments, monitoring, and management of their side effects. This guide will enable prescribers to have a document available that will allow for better and optimal use of antifungal agents for hematology patients with consideration of the toxicity and interactions adjusted to each indication.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Many tropical countries are facing epidemics of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, raising concerns about the potential spread of these diseases to temperate regions like France.
  • A survey of infectious diseases physicians revealed that they generally perceive the risk of these arboviral diseases in France as low to medium-low, influenced by their medical training and awareness of national health plans.
  • To improve preparedness against these diseases, there is a need for better communication and education for both health professionals and the public.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Antibiotics for febrile neutropenia (FN) in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy are usually maintained until neutropenia resolution, because of the risk of uncontrolled sepsis in this vulnerable population. This leads to unnecessarily prolonged antimicrobial therapy.

Methods: Based on ECIL-4 recommendations, we modified our management strategy and discontinued antibiotics after a pre-established duration in patients treated for a first episode of FN between August 2014 and October 2017.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are severe infections that can be community or hospital acquired. Effects of time to appropriate treatment and impact of antimicrobial management team are discussed in terms of outcome of BSI. We sought to evaluate the impact of initial BSI management on short-term mortality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The ongoing extended spectrum β-lactamase-producing (ESBL-PE) pandemic has led to an increasing carbapenem use, requiring release of guidelines for carbapenem usage in France in late 2010. We sought to determine factors associated with changes in carbapenem use in intensive care units (ICUs), medical and surgical wards between 2009 and 2013.

Methods: This ward-level multicentre retrospective study was based on data from French antibiotic and multidrug-resistant bacteria surveillance networks in healthcare facilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) of antibiotics (antibiotic-PIPs) are generally detected by applying implicit definitions based on expert opinion. Explicit definitions are less frequently used, even though this approach would enable the automated detection of antibiotic-PIPs in electronic health records. Here, explicit definitions of antibiotic-PIPs used in studies of older adults were systematically reviewed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of carbapenem use in French healthcare settings in order to guide future actions. Healthcare facilities voluntarily participated in a nationwide cross-sectional survey in 2011. Medical data and reasons for carbapenem treatment (CPR) and discontinuation were recorded for all patients treated with carbapenems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Intravascular-catheter-related infections are frequent life-threatening events in health care, but incidence can be decreased by improvements in the quality of care. Optimisation of skin antisepsis is essential to prevent short-term catheter-related infections. We hypothesised that chlorhexidine-alcohol would be more effective than povidone iodine-alcohol as a skin antiseptic to prevent intravascular-catheter-related infections.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rationale: When subclavian access is not possible, controversy exists between the internal jugular and femoral sites for the choice of central-venous access in intensive care unit patients.

Objectives: To compare infection and colonization rates of short-term jugular and femoral catheters.

Methods: Using data from two multicenter studies, we compared femoral and internal jugular for the risks of catheter-related bloodstream infection, major catheter-related infection, and catheter-tip colonization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF