Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy in patients with haematological malignancies. A pilot study of an early discharge strategy.

The objectives of this study were to estimate the feasibility of a self-administration outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) model. to record the complication rate and to estimate patient acceptance during the OPAT period in patients with acute leukaemia (AL) or aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Patients were trained to administer the antibiotic infusions themselves, via their central venous access device, according to a checklist and step-by-step instructions. Study-specific questionnaires were used to evaluate patient acceptance. Eleven patients [AL (n=8) and NHL (n=3), median age 51 years, range 29-661 participated in the education programme and subsequent OPAT during ten episodes of documented infection and six episodes of fever of unknown aetiology. All patients had assessment of the infectious episode and initial parenteral antibiotic therapy in the hospital before they continued self-administration at home. The median education time was 3 h (range 0.75-4.5). The patients could stay at home for 4 days (median, range; 1-12) with ongoing intravenous antibiotic therapy instead of being hospitalised. None of the patients developed recurrent fever. All patients reported that OPAT was of great value and they would favour OPAT again during subsequent antibiotic therapy. In conclusion, the results of this pilot series suggest that OPAT, in this setting, is a safe alternative during the last days of an episode of fever / infection. All patients were satisfied overall, and none was readmitted.