Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy

Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy, or OPAT, allows non-oral antibiotics, usually given intravenously, to be administered without ongoing hospitalization, serving patients who need an extended antibiotic course that is not available in oral form but who do not require intensive inpatient care. Treatment can be delivered at an outpatient office, an infusion center, a day hospital, or at home using infusion pumps, including elastomeric pumps, with antibiotics such as cefepime, ceftazidime, vancomycin, and piperacillin-tazobactam commonly used, and some antibiotics such as ceftriaxone increasingly given by subcutaneous injection. OPAT is used as part of antimicrobial stewardship programs because it reduces hospital stays, costs, and complications while improving patients' quality of life; one Italian study found daily OPAT cost about 32 euros compared with about 400 euros for inpatient treatment, a reduction of roughly 92 percent.