Bacteremia

From IDWiki

Background

  • The presence of bacteria in the blood
  • May be primary (associated with intravascular devices or catheters) or secondary (from some focus of infection)
  • May be community-acquired (onset within 48 hours of admission) or nosocomial (onset after 48 hours from admission)
  • Pseudobacteremia refers to blood culture contamination

Management

  • See Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, separately
  • Treat empirically, narrow when possible
  • Duration is as usual for underlying source of bacteremia, except Staph. aureus
  • Usually not more than 7 days for Gram-negative bacteremia or 14 days for Gram-positive bacteremia