PO-llution control: a cross-sectional study on the role of antimicrobial stewardship in reducing healthcare's carbon footprint.

Objectives: To evaluate the environmental impact of prolonged IV antimicrobial courses and identify opportunities for improved antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) practices.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using AMS ward-round data from January 2023 to December 2024 at a tertiary hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Data on IV antimicrobial prescriptions, AMS recommendations for discontinuation or IV to oral switch (IVOS) and prescriber acceptance were reviewed.

Adult intracranial bacterial abscesses in Ireland (2010-2021) associated with a low mortality. Luck of the Irish?

Objectives: To describe the epidemiology, microbiology and clinical outcomes of adult patients (aged ≥16 years) diagnosed with bacterial intracranial abscesses in the Republic of Ireland.

Methods: A 12-year retrospective analysis from 2010 to 2021 was conducted in the Republic of Ireland's two neurosurgical centres. Radiological, microbiological, and medical records of adult patients with confirmed intracranial abscesses were analysed.

Getting to the heart of the matter-are two agents really better than one for the treatment of staphylococcal infective endocarditis?

The recently published European Society of Cardiology guidelines for infective endocarditis management recommends daptomycin combination therapy for the treatment of staphylococcal endocarditis in severe penicillin allergy, rather than daptomycin monotherapy. We discuss the evidence base behind this recommendation, highlighting concerns regarding the lack of robust clinical studies, increased cost and logistical considerations, and adverse effects of combination therapy. Although further studies are required to elucidate the role of combination vs monotherapy in these patients, we propose a pragmatic management approach to reduce the risk of adverse antimicrobial side effects and limit costs, while aiming to maintain treatment efficacy.

Clostridioides difficile infection in neurosurgical patients in a national centre over 10 years: less common but associated with longer hospital stays.

Background: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of healthcare-associated (HA) diarrhoea, contributing to patient morbidity and prolonged length-of-stay (LOS). We retrospectively assessed CDI over a decade in a national neurosurgical centre, with a multi-disciplinary approach to CDI surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship, by comparing CDI patients with other patient groups.

Methods: Data on CDI in neurosurgical inpatients between January 2012 and December 2021 were collated.

Social network and genomic analysis of an OXA-48 carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales hospital ward outbreak in Ireland, 2018-2019.

Background: Nosocomial transmission and outbreaks of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) represent a challenge to healthcare systems. In July 2018, a CPE hospital ward outbreak was declared. Our aim was to investigate transmission patterns, using social network analysis and genomics in a nosocomial CPE outbreak.

Molecular epidemiology of an extended multiple-species OXA-48 CPE outbreak in a hospital ward in Ireland, 2018-2019.

Objectives: Molecular epidemiological description of an OXA-48 CPE outbreak affecting a tertiary-care hospital ward in Ireland over an extended period (2018-2019).

Methods: Microbiological testing and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) were performed on all 56 positive OXA-48 outbreak case isolates.

Results: In total, 7 different species were identified: (n = 35, 62.

meningitis/ventriculitis over a decade. Increased morbidity and length of stay a concern.

Aim: The primary aim of this study was to review the diagnosis, management and outcome of meningitis/ventriculitis in our hospital over a ten-year period.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all culture and 18s rRNA nucleic acid positive CSF specimens processed between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2020. Patient records were subsequently reviewed to assess the significance of the isolate.

Expect the unexpected: chronic renal abscess secondary to renal actinomycosis.

Actinomycosis is an invasive infection, which can affect numerous anatomical sites, though rarely the kidney. The rate of nephrectomy is high despite antibiotic therapy. A 51 year old presented with a renal abscess 9 years following a similar renal abscess.