Comparison of length of hospital stay for patients with known or suspected methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus species infections treated with linezolid or vancomycin: a randomized, multicenter trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To compare hospital length of stay (LOS), weekly discharges, and days of antibiotic treatment with linezolid (intravenous with oral follow-up) and vancomycin (intravenous only).

DESIGN: Multinational, randomized, phase III trial.

SETTINGS: Hospitals in North America, Latin America, and Europe.

PATIENTS: Four hundred sixty hospitalized patients with infections of known or suspected methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus species.

INTERVENTION: Administration of linezolid or vancomycin.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: For linezolid recipients, median LOS was 5 and 8 days shorter (p=0.05 and 0.003) in the complicated skin and soft tissue infection intent-to-treat (230 patients) and clinically evaluable (144) samples, and slightly but not significantly shorter in the overall intent-to-treat (460) and clinically evaluable (254) samples. In all samples, linezolid recipients had more discharges in the first week of treatment and fewer days of intravenous therapy than vancomycin recipients.

CONCLUSION: Our results support linezolid's ability to reduce medical resource use.