Ceftriaxone Better Than Amoxicillin or No Treatment for Lyme Disease During Pregnancy: Presented at ESPID
NICE, France -- May 10, 2010 -- Treatment with ceftriaxone is more effective that other beta-lactams in treatingLyme borreliosis infections during pregnancy, according to a study presented here at the 28th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID).
Untreated Lyme disease is associated with adverse outcomes of pregnancy, including miscarriage, stillbirth, and congenital heart problems in the newborn and treatment delay may present increased risk of unfavourable outcome.
Adràs Lakos MD, Center for Tick-Borne Diseases, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary presented the results of a data analysis of the treatment and outcomes of pregnant women with Lyme disease on May 7.
A total of 87 pregnant women with Lyme disease received parenteral ceftriaxone, 25 received oral amoxicillin, and 12 women were untreated.
Adverse outcomes were seen in 7 of the 87 (8%) women treated with ceftriaxone, 9 of the 25 (36%) women treated with amoxicillin, and in 8 of the 12 (67%) women who did not receive medication.
The most common adverse outcomes among these women were babies who were born small for their gestational age and babies who were born prematurely (7 cases). Other complications were heterogeneous.
Loss of pregnancy occurred in 9 women.
In comparison to patients treated with antibiotics, untreated women had a significantly higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (P = .0002).
Women who were given oral medication had an increased chance of having an adverse pregnancy outcome (P = .0014), compared with women who received intravenous treatment.
The probability of adverse outcome increased as time from the first maternal symptom to treatment increased; at 4 months after symptoms appeared the probability of adverse outcome increased by 33%.
[Presentation title: Lyme Borreliosis During Pregnancy. Abstract 102]
