High -Yield Internal Medicine Board Exam Pearls by Knowmedge - HTML preview

weeks of intravenous antibiotics

 Patients treated for at least 2 weeks of antibiotics are more likely to be cured of

bacteremia and less likely to have recurrence of bacteremia3

 Recurrence of bacteremia may be due to bone, joint, and cardiac involvement due to

inadequate initial antimicrobial course3

 Patients with cardiac, bone, and joint involvement need at least 4 – 6 weeks of

antimicrobial coverage

 Remove intravascular catheters if patient has Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (20

– 26% of cases are complicated by infective endocarditis or metastatic infection) 8

 Patients with hematuria during Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia should have further

evaluation for infective endocarditis8

 Oral linezolid can be used to complete a 2-week course in some cases12

Pearl # 2: Candida in the blood is not a contaminant, but could be in the sputum or