This is the final post for CLABSI and we finish up this month’s topic by covering the appropriate treatment for these severe infections – sign up for our newsletter so you can see the whole thing tied together and ensure you don’t miss next month’s topic!
When a CLABSI is diagnosed, the catheter should be removed and antibiotic therapy initiated before the culture results are obtained. The tip of the catheter is also sent to the lab to be cultured. Subsequently, antibiotic therapy should be tailored, if needed, to the specific causative organism as that information becomes available to the provider. The antibiotic of choice for therapy prior to culture results is vancomycin. An alternative antibiotic is daptomycin. Once the bacteria is identified and sensitivity determined, the antibiotic can be changed if needed. Some of the causative bacteria for CLABSI are coagulase negative staphylococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus, gram-negative rods, and Candida.
