H Bao et al. Pediatrics 2021; 148: e2020031807. Oral Vancomycin as Secondary Prophylaxis for Clostridioides difficile Infection. Thanks to Ben Gold for sharing this reference.

Methods: A multicampus, retrospective cohort evaluation was conducted among patients aged ≤18 years with any history of clinical CDI and receiving systemic antibiotics in a subsequent encounter from 2013–2019. This study identified 30 and 44 patients received oral vancomycin prophylaxis (OVP) and no OVP, respectively. Eligible patients had to be >12 months of age and having at 3 unformed stools everyday.

OVP dosing: “vancomycin doses of 10 mg/kg (up to 125 mg per dose) every 12 hours during concomitant antibiotic use. OVP duration was intended to continue while on systemic antimicrobial agents and for 5 days after completion of antimicrobial agents (extended prophylaxis tail), but practice varied, and duration was ultimately left to the discretion of the provider.”

Key finding:

The incidence of CDI recurrence within 8 weeks of antibiotic exposure was significantly lower in patients who received OVP (3% vs 25%; P = .02) despite this group having notably more risk factors for recurrence.   After adjustment in a multivariable analysis, secondary OVP was associated with less risk of recurrence (odds ratio, 0.10; 95% confidence interval, 0.01–0.86; P = .04).

This study is in agreement with studies in adults (Brown CC, et al. Oral Vancomycin for Secondary Prophylaxis of Clostridium difficile Infection. Ann Pharmacother. 2019 Apr;53(4):396-401). In this review, the authors state: “Variable dosing regimens and lack of safety data are limitations.. clinicians can consider vancomycin 125 mg orally once or twice daily in high-risk patients receiving broad-spectrum antibacterial agents.”

My take: In patients at high risk of recurrent CDI, OVP should be considered as secondary prophylaxis when receiving systemic antibiotics.

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