Published in IJCP September 2018
MEDICAL VOICE FOR POLICY CHANGE
Medtalk with Dr KK Aggarwal
September 04, 2018 | Dr KK Aggarwal
     


Switching to oral antibiotics once an endocarditis patient is stable is safe and noninferior to continued intravenous (IV) antibiotic treatment as shown in the randomized Partial Oral Treatment of Endocarditis (POET) trial. The group getting oral tablets after at least 10 days of IV antibiotics had a 9.0% rate of all-cause mortality, unplanned cardiac surgery, embolic events or relapse of bacteremia with the primary pathogen by 6 months after completion of treatment.