The Impact of Infectious Disease Specialist Consultation for Staphylococcus aureus Bloodstream Infections: A Systematic Review

Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of severe bloodstream infection.We performed a systematic review to assess whether consultationwith infectious disease specialists decreased all-cause mortality or rate of complications of S aureus bloodstream infections.The review also assessed parameters associated with the quality of management of the infection. We searched for eligible studies inPubMed, Embase, Scopus, and clinical trials.gov as well as the references of included studies. We identified 22 observational studiesand 1 study protocol for a randomized trial. A meta-analysis was not performed because of the high risk of bias in the includedstudies. The outcomes are reported in a narrative review. Most included studies reported survival benefit, in the adjusted analysis.Recommended management strategies were carried out significantly more often among patients seen by an infectious diseasespecialist. Trials, such as cluster-randomized controlled trials, can more validly assess the studies at low risk of bias