Time to appropriate antimicrobial therapy serves an independent prognostic indicator in children with nosocomial Klebsiella pneumoniae bloodstream infection

We tend to investigate the connection between time to appropriate therapy (TTAT) and prognosis in pediatric patients with nosocomial Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) bloodstream infection, and find the optimal cutoff point for the empirical administration of antimicrobials. This retrospective study was conducted in Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, and inpatients with nosocomial K. pneumoniae bloodstream infection were finally enrolled. We applied the Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis to find the TTAT cutoff point and the Logistic Regression analysis to evaluate prognostic indicators. The incidence of septic shock and mortality was 17.91% (12/67) and 13.43% (9/67), respectively. The CART-derived TTAT cutoff point was 10.7 h. The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated delayed therapy (TTAT ≥ 10.7 h), pediatric risk of mortality (PRISM) III scores ≥ 10, time to positivity (TTP) ≤ 13 h, and requiring for invasive mechanical ventilation were independently associated with the incidence of septic shock (Odds ratio [OR] 9.87, 95% Confidence interval [CI] 1.46–66.59, P = 0.019; OR 9.69, 95% CI 1.15–81.39, P = 0.036; OR 8.28, 95% CI 1.37–50.10, P = 0.021; OR 6.52, 95% CI 1.08–39.51, P = 0.042; respectively) and in-hospital mortality (OR 22.19, 95% CI 1.25–393.94, P = 0.035; OR 40.06, 95% CI 2.32–691.35, P = 0.011; OR 22.60, 95% CI 1.78–287.27, P = 0.016; OR 12.21, 95% CI 1.06–140.67, P = 0.045; respectively). Conclusions: TTAT is an independent predictor of poor outcomes in children with nosocomial K. pneumoniae bloodstream infection. Initial appropriate antimicrobial therapy should be administrated timely and within 10.7 h from the onset of bloodstream infection is recommended.