To Study the Contributing Factors and Outcomes of Clostridioides Difficile Infection in Patients with Solid Tumors.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-26-2021

Publication Title

Heliyon

Abstract

Background: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a considerable healthcare burden, and now identified as the leading cause of acquired diarrheal illness in patients receiving antibiotics. Patients with malignancies are more prone to acquire CDI, owing to their frequent exposure to risk factors.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the outcome of Clostridioides Difficile Infection in patients with solid tumors at our community healthcare center.

Methods: This is a retrospective study that included a total of 59 patients with solid tumors who were hospitalized for Clostridioides difficile infection.

Results: The median age of the study population was 79 years with 39 males and 20 females. The patients had a diagnosis of a malignancy involving the following sites: prostate (25), lung (19), colon (7), bladder (4), breast (3), and renal (1). There were 52 cases of first time and 7 cases of recurrent CDI admissions. 40 patients were detected to have CDI at presentation while 19 patients were diagnosed with CDI after admission. CDI was categorized as follows: non-severe (29), severe (28), and very severe (2). There were 33 patients on chemotherapy and 20 patients undergoing radiotherapy. Twenty-seven patients had a recent history of cancer care-related procedures or interventions. Twenty-nine patients were from either a rehabilitation center or a long-term nursing care facility. There were 39 recent hospitalizations with 29 patients receiving antibiotics. Almost half of the patients were on proton pump inhibitors (29) and 12 were on steroids (20.3%) at the time of developing CDI. Patients with a high-risk qSOFA score of 2 or more (p-value = 0.008) or a high white blood cell count of >15 × 10

Conclusions: CDI causes significant morbidity in patients with malignancies. A high qSOFA score and leukocytosis are significantly associated with high morbidity and thus should be used to prioritize and intensify inpatient care of these patients.

Volume

7

Issue

12

First Page

e08450

DOI

10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08450

ISSN

2405-8440

PubMed ID

34926847

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