Association of ciprofloxacin prescriptions to outpatients to Clostridium difficile infections

摘要

To study if antibiotic treatment of outpatients had triggered Clostridium difficile infections (CDI), prescription numbers were compared with CDI-affected patient numbers. A strong correlation was observed for ciprofloxacin (R=0.917), suggesting that increased use of ciprofloxacin by outpatients contributed to increased numbers of CDI. These findings deserve further investigation as they may have an impact on future decisions regarding antibiotic prescribing.