Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT)

December 14, 2023 updated by: Serge de Valliere, University of Lausanne Hospitals

Observational Study About the Feasibility, Safety and Efficacy of Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT)

Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) has been recognised as a useful, cost-effective and safe alternative to inpatient treatment, but no formal OPAT unit existed in Switzerland until recently. In December 2013 an OPAT unit was established at Lausanne University Hospital. The investigators plan to investigate the efficacy, safety and economicity of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy administered at the new OPAT unit of the Lausanne University Hospital starting in January 2014 until December 2020.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Detailed Description

Some patients require parenteral antibiotic therapy, but are well enough to return home. Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) was first developed in the USA in the 1970s for patients with cystic fibrosis, before being adopted by other countries. It has been recognised as a useful, cost-effective and safe alternative to inpatient treatment. It is now a standard care in several countries and different national guidelines have been established. There are various models of care for OPAT and most OPAT centres provide hospital-centred nursing programmes or services based on nurses visiting the patient's home. A few centres have also shown that self-administration of intravenous antibiotic therapy is an effective and safe option for selected patients. Furthermore, use of continuous infusion of antibiotics increases the number of feasible treatments. Continuous infusion by pumps of antibiotics with a time-dependent killing mechanism is a practical option which has been described. In Europe, even if many infectious disease specialists feel that OPAT is required, it is still underdeveloped because of lack of funding, lack of leadership and lack of coordination between hospitals and community care.

In the last decades, programs to enhance care delivery on an outpatient basis in order to contain health costs have been developed in Switzerland. However administration of outpatient intravenous antibiotic therapy for patients who require parenteral therapy, but are otherwise fit enough to go home, hasn't been used widely until recently. In December 2013, an outpatient parenteral antibiotic treatment (OPAT) unit was initiated at Lausanne University Hospital with the goal of offering an alternative treatment programme that is equally effective and as safe as inpatient treatment.

The purpose of this study will be to investigate the efficacy, safety and economicity of treatments administered at the new OPAT unit of the University Hospital of Lausanne in the context of the Swiss Health System.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

2000

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

      • Lausanne, Switzerland, 1011
        • Recruiting
        • Department of Outpatient Care and Community Medicine, University Hospital of Lausanne
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Serge de Valliere, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All patients referred to the OPAT unit of Lausanne Unversity Hospital

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients referred to the OPAT unit of Lausanne University Hospital

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to give informed consent
  • Refusing participation

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Prospective

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Evaluation of treatment outcomes
Time Frame: 2014-2020

Efficacy of OPAT will be evaluated by recording the treatment outcome. Patients will be categorized 3 months after end of treatment as cured, as treatment failure or as a relapse according to the following definitions:

  • cured: absence of fever and no clinical sign of the site of infection.
  • treatment failure: patient readmitted to hospital because of infection related complications
  • relapse: patients considered as cured at the end of OPAT, but who had again signs of infection at the same site within 3 months after end of OPAT.
2014-2020
Evaluation of the incidence of adverse events
Time Frame: 2014-2020
Evaluation of the safety of OPAT will be done by measuring the rate of adverse events and their severity during OPAT. All adverse events will be recorded and classified according to their severity according the grade classification (grade 1 to 5) as recommended by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). (https://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/CTCAE/CTCAE_4.03_2010-06-14_QuickReference_5x7.pdf)
2014-2020
Economic evaluation
Time Frame: 2014-2020
The cost of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial treatments will be estimated and compared to similar economic evaluations of other centres published in the literature.
2014-2020

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 27, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 13, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

July 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 15, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 14, 2023

Last Verified

December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 34/14

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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