Efficacy of Oral Linezolid

Clinical Efficacy

Oral Linezolid achieves comparable or even better clinical and microbiological success rates than intravenous Vancomycin in patients with complicated skin and soft tissue infections caused by MRSA, with a significant higher clinical success rate (Odds Ratio 4.0; 95% CI, 1.3-12.0) 1
A Cochrane meta-analysis confirmed that Linezolid is associated with a significantly better clinical (RR = 1.09) and microbiological cure rate (RR = 1.08) than Vancomycin 1, 2
Linezolid is significantly more effective than Vancomycin in terms of clinical (RR = 1.09) and microbiological cure rates (RR = 1.17) in patients with MRSA infections 1, 2

Oral therapy enables earlier hospital discharge, with an average of 3 days shorter hospital stay compared to intravenous Vancomycin therapy 1, 2
The daily costs of outpatient therapy are lower with oral Linezolid than with intravenous Vancomycin 2
Linezolid offers the advantage of early intravenous-to-oral switch with excellent tissue penetration 1, 2

The American College of Clinical Pharmacy recommends oral Linezolid 600 mg every 12 hours 3, 4
The Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends intravenous Linezolid 600 mg every 12 hours 3, 4

For patients with severe infections who can tolerate oral therapy and have documented clinical improvement, a switch to oral therapy should be attempted as early as possible 3, 4
The switch from intravenous to oral therapy should occur when criteria for clinical stability are met (Recommendation 1C) 5, 2