Efficacy and Safety of Linezolid in Treating Gram-Positive Bacterial Infection in the Elderly: A Retrospective Study

Linezolid is commonly used for the treatment of drug-resistant Gram-positive bacterial infection. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of linezolid in treating Gram-positive bacterial infection in the elderly from January 2010 to December 2012. Total 40 elderly patients (>60 years old) with Gram-positive bacterial infection were treated with linezolid and their demographic and clinical data were collected and analyzed. Among the 40 patients, 31 patients (77.5 %) were cured. Linezolid caused little adverse effects on liver and renal function. The main adverse effect was thrombocytopenia and its incidence was significantly associated with baseline platelet count and the duration of treatment (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the baseline platelet count <200 × 10⁶/mL, but not the age, the sex, the length of hospital stay, baseline levels of hemoglobin, alanine aminotransferase, or creatinine clearance rate was significantly associated with linezolid-induced thrombocytopenia. In conclusion, linezolid is effective to cure Gram-positive bacterial infection in the elderly and causes little adverse effects on liver and renal function. Timely monitoring of baseline platelet count may be helpful to guide the use of linezolid to avoid the occurrence of thrombocytopenia.