Comparing the Intravenous Treatment of Skin Infections in Children, Home Versus Hospital
Status:
Active, not recruiting
Trial end date:
2021-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Many children every year present to the Emergency Department (ED) at The Royal Children's
Hospital (RCH) with cellulitis (skin infection). If it is mild, the children can go home with
oral antibiotic treatment. If it is complicated and severe, these children are admitted to
hospital for intravenous (IV, through a drip) antibiotic treatment. There is a middle group
with uncomplicated moderate/severe cellulitis who require IV antibiotics but who are not
acutely unwell. In order to determine whether it is just as effective for children with
uncomplicated moderate to severe cellulitis to receive antibiotic treatment at home (via
Hospital-In-The-Home) as it is to receive antibiotic treatment in hospital, there is a need
to conduct a larger study and randomly assign children to receive either HITH or hospital
ward care.
The primary research question to be addressed is:
In children with moderate/severe uncomplicated cellulitis, is the failure rate at 2 days
following the first dose of antibiotic non-inferior for children treated with IV antibiotics
at home compared to the failure rate at 2 days following the first dose for children treated
with IV antibiotics in hospital?