Background: We aimed to describe the frequency of use and effectiveness of bezlotoxumab (BZX) and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in patients with Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in real-world practice.
Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted in a university hospital in which adult patients treated with BZX or FMT from January 2018 to April 2021 were included. The primary objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of BZX and FMT in preventing early (within 8 weeks) and late (within 1 year) CDI recurrences (rCDI). A multivariate analysis of risk factors for early recurrence was performed.
Results: Of 1377 consecutive CDI episodes, 117 (8.5%) received BZX or FMT, with full information available for 100 of the episodes: 51 received BZX, and 49 received FMT. BZX was used mostly in immunosuppressed patients (66.7%) and in first episodes or first recurrences in 70.6% of the cases. FMT was prescribed only in CDI recurrences. Despite the different conditions of the patients, there were no significant differences between BZX and FMT in preventing early rCDI (19.6% vs 24.5%; P = .55) or late rCDI (9.8% vs 18.4%; P = .31). In the multivariate analysis, risk factors for recurrence were presence of ≥2 previous rCDI episodes (odds ratio [OR], 2.90; 95% CI, 1.03-8.63) and use of non-CDI antibiotics (OR, 3.45; 95% CI, 1.24-9.57).
Conclusions: BZX and FMT were infrequently used in real-world practice. Both treatments had similar effectiveness in preventing CDI recurrence despite their application to different populations.
Keywords: Clostridioides difficile; bezlotoxumab; fecal microbiota transplantation; recurrence; risk factors.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.