Short‐Term Therapy for Intravascular Catheter–Related Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia

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Abstract
Sir—Despite increasing emphasis on evidence-based medicine, and despite the traditional acceptance of prospective controlled studies as the source of such evidence, the recently published guidelines on the treatment of catheter-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia appear to place greater emphasis on convenient, desirable conclusions than on documented results [1]. Two algorithms provided in these guidelines unequivocally recommend 14 days of therapy for S. aureus bacteremia after removal of a central venous catheter. The caption to figure 4 cautions that it is important to assess the patient for complications. However, the challenge of therapy is to prevent those complications that are not evident at the onset of bacteremia [2].