Azactam

Infections like pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infection (also called SSTI or cellulitis), and urinary tract infections (UTI) are some of the most common reasons children get admitted to the hospital. All three of these conditions require antibiotics for treatment. Although antibiotics are needed to treat the infection and help children feel better, taking them longer than needed can negatively impact children and their families. Negative impacts include things like the burdens of taking more medications and medication side effects. There are guidelines (instructions) from expert medical organizations that suggest the number of days children need antibiotics, but they give a wide range (between 5 and 14 days). Unfortunately, these guidelines are not based on high-quality studies. National data suggests that doctors often choose on the higher end of this range when writing prescriptions for children in the hospital. Our three caregiver co-investigators, other parents of hospitalized children, doctors, other care providers, and researchers, all believe that additional study is needed to determine the best length of antibiotic treatment that weighs both the benefits and harms of antibiotics. The goal of our study is to understand if 5 total days of antibiotic treatment compared to 10 total days of antibiotic treatment is better for children who have been in the hospital for pneumonia, SSTI, or UTI. We will study this question through a randomized control trial. In other words, half of the children will receive 5-days of antibiotics and the other half will receive 10-days of antibiotics. Children in this study (and their caregivers) will not know how many days of antibiotics they will receive to cure their infection because some children will take a placebo (or a pill without antibiotics in it). Only the pharmacy will know if a child is getting antibiotic or placebo (for days 6-10 of treatment). During the first phase of the trial (feasibility phase), 4 hospitals will enroll children in the study. We plan on enrolling 50 patients during this phase. We are starting with just 4 hospitals, so our study team can create and update our study plans if needed. We will closely review information about how many patients and families agree to participate, and if they have any trouble completing any part of the study. We will also interview families to understand the choice to participate in the study, the choice not to participate in the study, and what it is like to be in the study. During the second study phase, we will enroll 1150 more patients across all 11 hospitals. Families will complete short, daily surveys until the 15th day after they started antibiotics, then a larger survey at day 15, at day 20, and at day 30. These surveys will ask about the child's symptoms and recovery from their illness, how the antibiotics are making them feel, and if they had to go back to their doctor, emergency room, or hospital. The answers to these questions will be combined to measure how well the child did, balancing feeling better and having bad effects from the antibiotics. We will use mathematical tests to determine which antibiotic duration is better for treating these illnesses. We will complete other mathematical tests to see if all children should receive the same length of antibiotics or if certain children should be prescribed shorter courses and others longer courses.

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether Lactobacillus crispatus strains isolated from the lower urinary tracts of adult women can be used as an antibiotic-sparing treatment for urinary symptoms and urinary tract infection (UTI) among adults with neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction (NLUTD). The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are: 1. To identify soluble bactericidal compounds produced by urinary isolates of L. crispatus that kill uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). 2. To determine if intravesical instillation of L. crispatus is safe and well tolerated in adults with NLUTD due to SCI who use intermittent catheterization (IC). If there is a comparison group: Researchers will compare L. Crispatus to standard care saline to see if there is a difference in urinary symptoms and urinary microbiome. Participants will be asked to complete daily symptom surveys, complete 2 bladder instillations, and collect, freeze, and return 14 urine samples.

Urine culture is the most common microbiological test in the outpatient setting in the United States. Unfortunately, contamination during collection is prevalent and undermines test accuracy, leading to incorrect diagnosis, unnecessary treatment, wasted laboratory resources, and inflated costs. Unnecessary antibiotic treatment increases the risk of developing antimicrobial resistance, one of the most serious threats to patients and public health. The goal of this clinical trial is to test whether a bilingual (English and Spanish) educational intervention, an animated video and pictorial flyer, can reduce urine culture contamination and associated inappropriate antibiotic use in adult patients visiting safety-net primary care clinics. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does providing patients with a bilingual educational intervention reduce urine culture contamination rates? 2. Does the intervention lead to fewer unnecessary urinary antibiotic prescriptions? 3. Does providing patients with a bilingual educational intervention reduce contaminated urinalyses? Researchers will compare patients randomized to receive the educational intervention (video and flyer) to those receiving usual care to see if the intervention improves urine collection accuracy and reduces inappropriate antibiotic use. Participants will watch a short, animated video with step-by-step instructions for proper midstream clean-catch urine (MSCC) collection, receive a pictorial flyer (with stills from the video) reinforcing the instructions, and provide a urine sample for culture. Hypothesis: patients who receive the educational intervention will have: lower urine culture contamination rates (primary outcome), fewer urinary antibiotic prescriptions (secondary outcome), and fewer contaminated urinalyses (secondary outcome). The objectives are to (1) develop educational tools: Create an animated video and pictorial flyer with step-by-step urine collection instructions for women and men, developed through an iterative, stakeholder-engaged process, (2) assess acceptability: Use mixed methods (quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews) to evaluate and refine the tools for usability and cultural/linguistic appropriateness, and (3) test effectiveness: Conduct a randomized controlled trial to assess the intervention's impact on urine contamination rates, antibiotic prescribing, and patient satisfaction.

At least ten percent of patients have postpartum urinary retention or difficulty urinating after birth, which can cause incontinence and other urinary problems long-term. After getting an epidural placed, patients should be numb in their pelvic region. This numbness makes it difficult to feel the need to urinate, so patients need a urinary catheter placed to empty the bladder. Some patients have one catheter placed throughout their labor and others have a catheter placed to empty the bladder then removed every few hours. The investigators are studying whether placing a catheter once or catheterizing multiple times affects the rate of postpartum urinary problems and infection.

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare methenamine hippurate prophylaxis to routine antibiotic prophylaxis following onabotulinumtoxinA (BOTOX-A) injections in women with overactive bladder (OAB). Participants will be randomly selected to receive one of the two post-procedural prophylaxis medications. The primary outcome measure will be urinary tract infection (UTI) rates within 30 days from the BOTOX-A procedure. Secondary outcomes will assess patient satisfaction with the two post-procedural prophylaxis medications.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-month study to determine the effectiveness of D-mannose (2g daily) supplementation in rUTI (recurrent urinary tract infection) prevention in post-menopausal women.

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) affects at least 40% of women in the United States. Synthetic polypropylene mid-urethral slings (MUS) are the gold standard treatment for SUI. Post-operative urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common complications after MUS placement. Some studies have demonstrated that MUS placement can increase the risk of UTI up to 21-34%. Post-operative UTI can lead to significant healthcare and patient burden. This additional burden further contributes to an estimated annual cost of $1.6 billion for UTI management in the United States. With increased antibiotic usage, there is simultaneous increase in bacterial resistance leading to treatment refractory UTI. The investigators prescribe post-operative antibiotics prophylactically for 3 days after MUS placement with or without concurrent pelvic reconstructive surgery based on prior literature recommending post-operative prophylaxis. There is a greater emphasis on limiting antibiotic use given the trend of development of bacterial resistance. There are studies supporting alternatives such as methenamine for recurrent UTI prophylaxis treatment, but there are limited studies evaluating methenamine for UTI prophylaxis after MUS.

Eliminating inappropriate antibiotic use in pediatric lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) is the central focus of this research. LRTIs (pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and infection-related exacerbations of asthma) account for nearly one-third of all emergency department (ED) visits and 40% of all infection-related hospitalizations in US children. LRTIs also account for more antibiotic use in children's hospitals than any other condition, despite most LRTIs being viral in nature. Inappropriate antibiotics are associated with substantial adverse effects. Accordingly, national guidelines strongly discourage routine antibiotic use for bronchiolitis and acute asthma and argue for significantly reducing antibiotic exposure (initiation, spectrum, and duration) in pneumonia. To address the problem of inappropriate antibiotic use, hospital-based antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are now common nationwide, and these programs have demonstrated effectiveness in some hospital settings. Unfortunately, traditional ASP approaches do not translate well to the fast-paced and unpredictable ED environment, and hospital-based ASP resources are finite and not always immediately available. Clinical decision support (CDS) embedded within the electronic health record (EHR) is a strategy that could address the ED antibiotic stewardship gap. Informed by a deep understanding of the key facilitators and barriers to using CDS to support appropriate antibiotic use in ED and hospital settings, the investigators have developed two stewardship-focused CDS interventions for pediatric LRTI. The overarching goal of this research is to rigorously evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of these CDS tools, alone and in combination, against usual care only in a pragmatic randomized clinical trial at 3 U.S. children's hospitals.

The purpose of this trial is to assess the safety, tolerability and between-group effect size of STIMULAN VG (with debridement) and a course of systemic antibiotics to standard of care (debridement and systemic antibiotics only) for the treatment of osteomyelitis associated stage IV pressure ulcers.

In this study, the investigators will deploy a software-based clinical decision support tool (eCARTv5) into the electronic health record (EHR) workflow of multiple hospital wards. eCART's algorithm is designed to analyze real-time EHR data, such as vitals and laboratory results, to identify which patients are at increased risk for clinical deterioration. The algorithm specifically predicts imminent death or the need for intensive care unit (ICU) transfer. Within the eCART interface, clinical teams are then directed toward standardized guidance to determine next steps in care for elevated-risk patients. The investigators hypothesize that implementing such a tool will be associated with a decrease in ventilator utilization, length of stay, and mortality for high-risk hospitalized adults.

Intradetrusor injection of onabotulinumtoxinA, which is performed through a cystoscopic procedure, has been demonstrated to be efficacious in the treatment of both neurogenic and non-neurogenic overactive bladder (OAB), and is FDA approved as a treatment for overactive bladder. Intradetrusor of onabotulinumtoxinA is currently standard of care of patients with OAB who have persistent OAB symptoms despite behavioral therapies and oral medication treatments for OAB. As one of the main adverse events associated with intradetrusor injection of onabotulinumtoxinA is UTI, and published guidelines for cystoscopic procedures with manipulation recommend the use of prophylactic antibiotics, a single dose of prophylactic antibiotic is administered prior to this procedure. However, these recommendations are primarily based on data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving antimicrobial prophylaxis during transurethral resection of the prostate. A previously published prospective study demonstrated that the rate of post-procedural UTI did not differ amongst patients with neurogenic bladder who did not receive prophylactic antibiotics and were asymptomatic for UTI, regardless of whether they had sterile urine cultures or asymptomatic bacteriuria, suggesting that patients who are not symptomatic for UTI may not require antibiotic prophylaxis prior to intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injection. Studies have reported that up to 50% of antibiotic usage is inappropriate, leading to unnecessary exposure of patients to potential complications of antibiotic therapy, including Clostridium difficile infection which can cause recurrent diarrhea that may progress to sepsis and death, increasing antibiotic resistances, as well as dermal/allergic and gastro-intestinal manifestations. Therefore, in an effort to optimize antibiotic use, the investigators propose a prospective, randomized study to formally evaluate the differences in UTI frequency in subjects who have a negative urinalysis and are not symptomatic for UTI and receive prophylactic antibiotics at the time of intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injection compared to those who do not receive prophylactic antibiotics at the time of injection. The proposed study seeks to evaluate the current practice standard of antibiotic prophylaxis prior to intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxin injection.

Our data suggest that modulating the characteristics of light carries the potential to modify the host response to injury and critical illness and thus, improve outcome. The ability to modify the host response to the stress of major operations and sepsis carries immense potential to improve patient care. The primary purpose of this study is to determine if exposure to bright blue (442nm) enriched light, by comparison to ambient white fluorescent light, reduces the inflammatory response or organ dysfunction in patients undergoing 1) medical treatment for pneumonia, 2) a 2-stage arthroplasty for surgical management of a septic joint, 3) surgery for a necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI), and 4) surgery for an intraabdominal infection (e.g., diverticulitis). We will expose participants to one of two (2) lighting conditions: 1) high illuminance (\~1700 lux,), blue (442nm) spectrum enriched light and 2) ambient white fluorescent light that provides the standard environmental lighting (\~300-400 lux, no predominant spectrum) of the hospital. Both cohorts will be exposed to a 12 hours:12 hours light:dark cycle photoperiod. Those subjects assigned to blue light will be asked to shine this small portable blue enriched light on themselves from 0800 to 2000 for 3 days. At the transition from light to dark, the blue-enriched light is turned off, and additional blue wavelength light removed with an amber filter. Thus, the total period of intervention is 72 hours. The outcome of interest is change in the inflammatory response after surgery for appendicitis or diverticulitis as measured by the following parameters: white blood cell count, heart rate, the development of abdominal abscess, serum cytokine concentrations. The outcome of interest is change in the inflammatory response during pneumonia as measured by the following parameters: white blood cell count, heart rate, and serum cytokine concentrations.