An economic evaluation of a European cohort from a multinational trial of linezolid versus teicoplanin in serious gram-positive bacterial infections: the importance of treatment setting in evaluating treatment effects

In a recent multinational trial, hospital resource use and total cost of treatment were compared between linezolid and teicoplanin for severe Gram-positive bacterial infections among 227 European hospitalised patients. The results show that the linezolid group had a 3,2-day (6.3 for linezolid versus 9.5 for teicoplanin groups) shorter mean intravenous antibiotic treatment duration. Certain baseline variables, particularly the inpatient location at enrolment and the presence of outpatient/home parenteral antibiotic therapy (OHPAT), had substantial effects on length of stay (LOS) and cost of treatment. After adjusting for the between-treatment difference in these two variables and other baseline variables, the results showed non-significant shorter LOS and lower mean total cost of treatment for the linezolid group among patients with no access to OHPAT. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. and the International Society of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.