Utility of follow-up blood cultures for Gram-negative rod bacteremia in children

Persistent Gram-negative rod (GNR) bacteremia is uncommon under appropriate antibiotic therapy. A recent study showed that follow-up blood cultures (FUBCs) to confirm clearance 24–48 h after initiation of antibiotics, added little value in the management of GNR bacteremia in adults. However, the utility of FUBC in children is still unknown. We retrospectively reviewed the microbiology database to identify children aged <18 years with GNR bacteremia. Clinical information including gender, age, underlying diseases, presence of central venous line (CVC), source of bacteremia, and organisms was extracted from medical records. FUBCs for 99 episodes of GNR bacteremia in children became positive in 21%, which led to intervention in 57% of the episodes. In multivariate analysis between FUBC positive (n = 21) and negative (n = 78) groups, presence of CVC (n = 18, 86% vs n = 38, 49%, P = 0.001) and resistance to empirical antibiotics (n = 3, 14% vs n = 4, 5%, P = 0.04) were independently associated with positive FUBCs. Interestingly, no positive FUBC was observed in cases due to UTI (n = 13). Contrary to findings in adults, FUBC may still be useful in the management of GNR bacteremia in children.