Study looks at parenteral nutrition and its effect on bloodstream infections

"A multichamber bag is really a standardized parenteral nutrition [process], and we believe, and sometimes you see thought leaders that publish this, probably a good number of patients can really be serviced with a standard parenteral nutrition," Turpin says. "Some [patients] certainly would need some customized, which is where compounding is ideal. In other words, there are some patients for which compounding is ideal, then there is a large group of patients where a multichamber bag is great too."

Unlike some infection prevention checklists or processes, there is no cut-and-dry determination for when each approach produces the most favorable results. Because this was a retrospective study, the final numbers produced very limited evidence. Turpin says Baxter does have some prospective studies in the works that may provide much more consistency across all units and populations.

"But it's not just a prospective study within the hospital, we also have a study looking at home care patients as well," Turpin says. "It's looking at various patient populations. [We will know more] assuming we find similar results."

Raising questions
This study is not intended to be the final recommendation for parenteral nutrition use across all hospital units, Turpin says. Although authors of the study had a vast amount of variables and data to work with, they still only focused on the oncology unit, and there are likely many more factors yet to be determined.

Rather, it's a chance for IPs to look at the process that is used at their hospital and consider whether an alternative solution might help in particular instances.

"I think for infection control practitioners, what they love about this is really just raising the issue," Turpin says. "It's providing some more information for people to understand a little bit more about these issues, raise the issue, and say, 'Wait a minute, let's look a little bit more carefully.' "

The study was well received by IDSA meeting attendees. "I think people seemed to be very, very interested in the bloodstream infection issue, and I think people hadn't considered the whole parenteral nutrition piece of it before," Turpin says.