The findings were presented Sept. 19 at the American Society for Microbiology’s 55th Interscience Conference of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
“These findings, coupled with the cost savings involved with using cefazolin over nafcillin, make it an appealing first line agent for most MSSA bloodstream infections,” Maggie Monogue, clinical pharmacy fellow at Hartford Hospital Center for Anti-Infective Research and Development in Connecticut, said in a statement. “These results are important to the healthcare system because nafcillin can be up to 10 times the cost of cefazolin and with continually rising healthcare costs and tight budgets, cheaper alternatives are necessary.”
Nafcillin-treated patients within the trial had a treatment failure rate of 14 percent, which was greater than the 8.4 percent failure rate observed among cefazolin patients. Additionally, cefazolin is often a more tolerable option for patients and is dosed less frequently than nafcillin.
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