Adherence to European Association of Urology Guidelines on Prophylactic Antibiotics: An Important Step in Antimicrobial Stewardship.

BACKGROUND: The evolution of resistant pathogens is a worldwide health crisis and adherence to European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis may be an important way to improve antibiotic stewardship and reduce patient harm and costs. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains and health care costs during a period of adherence to EAU guidelines in a tertiary referral urologic institution. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A protocol for adherence to EAU guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis for all urologic procedures was introduced in January 2011. Data for 3529 urologic procedures performed between January 2011 and December 2013 after protocol introduction were compared with data for 2619 procedures performed between January 2008 and December 2010 before protocol implementation. The prevalence of bacterial resistance and health care costs were compared between the two periods. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The outcome measures were the proportion of resistant uropathogens and costs related to antibiotic consumption and symptomatic postoperative infection. We used χ2 and Fisher's exact tests to test the significance of differences. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The proportion of patients with symptomatic postoperative infection did not differ (180/3529 [5.1%] vs. 117/2619 [4.5%]; p=0.27). A total of 342 isolates from all patients with symptomatic postoperative infections were analysed. The rate of resistance of Escherichia coli to piperacillin/tazobactam (9.1% vs. 5.4%; p=0.03), gentamicin (18.3% vs. 11.2%; p=0.02), and ciprofloxacin (32.3% vs. 19.1%; p=0.03) decreased significantly after protocol introduction. The defined daily dose (DDD) use of ciprofloxacin fell from 4.2 to 0.2 DDD per 100 patient-days after implementation (p<0.001). Antibiotic drug costs (€76,980 vs. €36,700) and costs related to postoperative infections (€45,870 vs. €29,560) decreased following introduction of the protocol (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to EAU guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis reduced antibiotic usage without increasing post-operative infection rate and lowered the prevalence of resistant uropathogens. PATIENT SUMMARY: We analysed the impact of adherence to European Association of Urology guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis for all surgical urologic procedures on the prevalence of infections and resistant bacterial strains and on costs. We found that adherence to the guidelines reduced the rate of bacterial resistance, in particular against piperacillin/tazobactam, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin, and reduced costs without increasing the risk of postoperative infection after urologic procedures. We recommend adherence to the guidelines as an important part of antibiotic stewardship programmes.

Cost-effectiveness of combination therapy for treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a model based on the findings of the Combination of Avodart and Tamsulosin trial.

OBJECTIVE: • To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of combination therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) compared with alpha-blocker (AB), 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5ARI) monotherapy or watchful waiting (WW) in male patients enrolled in the Combination of Avodart and Tamsulosin (CombAT) trial using a Norwegian economic model. PATIENTS AND METHODS: • A decision analytic model was constructed to evaluate the BPH treatment regimens using point estimate base-case analyses, one-way sensitivity testing and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. • Symptom severity and acute urinary retention/transurethral resection of the prostate (AUR/TURP) event data came from the 4-year evaluation of the CombAT trial with additional data from the Medical Therapy of Prostatic Symptoms (MTOPS) trial. The model makes use of Norwegian practice pattern data and unit cost and utility estimates were taken from the published literature. • The model calculates treatment costs and utility outcomes at two time horizons: 4 years and lifetime. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated using WW as the basis of comparison. Costs and health state utilities were discounted after the first year. RESULTS: • At 4 years, ICER results for combination therapy are higher than AB monotherapy as a result of the higher drug cost, but the overall cost and quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) differences are small. • At the lifetime evaluation, the ICER results decrease from those at the 4-year horizon, although AB monotherapy remains less expensive than combination therapy. However, the incremental QALYs gained for combination therapy are twice those of AB monotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: • The model is sensitive to variability in estimates of health state utility assigned on the basis of symptom severity, indicating that both monotherapy and combination therapy have an advantage in maintaining patients in less severe symptom states. • Overall, combination therapy for BPH is expected to provide the greatest net monetary benefit at willingness-to-pay thresholds at or above ≈€6000 (£5400).

Preoperative assessment of the patient and risk factors for infectious complications and tentative classification of surgical field contamination of urological procedures.

PURPOSE: To assess the patient and identify the risk factors for infectious complications in conjunction with urological procedures and suggest a model for classification of the procedures. METHOD: Review of literature, critical analysis of data and tentative model for reducing infectious complications. RESULTS: Risk factors are bound to the patient and to the procedure itself and are associated with the environment where the healthcare is provided. Assuming a clean environment and sterile operation field, a five-level assessment ladder related to the patient and type of surgery is useful, considering: (1) the ASA score, (2) the general risk factors, (3) the individual endogenous and exogenous risk factors, (4) the class of surgery and the potential bacterial contamination burden and (5) the level of severity and difficulty of the surgical intervention. A cumulative approach will identify the level of risk for each patient and define preventive measures, such as the type of antibiotic prophylaxis or therapeutic measures before surgery. There are data suggesting that the higher the ASA score, the higher is the risk of infectious complication. Age, dysfunction of the immune system, hypo-albuminaemia/malnutrition and overweight, uncontrolled blood glucose level and smoking are independent general risk factors, whilst bacteriuria, indwelling catheter treatment, urinary tract stone disease, urinary tract obstruction and a history of urogenital infection are specific urological risk factors. There is inconclusive evidence for most other reported risk factors. The level of contamination of the surgical field is of utmost importance as are the procedure-related factors, and the sum of these have to be reflected on for the subsequent perioperative management of the patient. CONCLUSIONS: It is essential to identify and control risk factors to minimize infectious complications in conjunction with urological procedures. Our knowledge is limited and clinical research and quality registries analysing risk factors must be undertaken. We propose a working basis for assessment of patients' risk factors and classification of urological procedures.

Brachytherapy for prostate cancer: a systematic review of clinical and cost effectiveness.

OBJECTIVES: Brachytherapy is emerging as a new treatment option for prostate cancer, and is increasingly being used in Europe and North America. METHODS: A systematic review of studies that compared clinical or cost effectiveness of prostate brachytherapy with radical prostatectomy or external beam radiation for patients with localised prostate cancer. RESULTS: No randomised controlled trials were identified, but five observational studies with comparable patient groups were included in the review. There were no valid data on overall or disease-free survival. There was no difference in disease-free survival based on PSA as a surrogate measure, or in rates of complications. No cost effectiveness studies were found. Based on Norwegian data, the one-year cost of the three treatment options seem fairly similar, while long term cost data are lacking due to lack of data on long term clinical outcome. CONCLUSION: The evidence on the clinical effectiveness of therapies for localised prostate cancer is scarce, but the outcome appears to be comparable for radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy.