Table 1

Antimicrobial Treatment for C. difficile-associated disease based on disease severity

Disease classification

Recommended treatment

Mild to moderate disease (mild to moderate diarrhea, leukocytosis <15,000/μl)

Metronidazole 500 mg orally 3 times/day for 10 to 14 days

Severe disease (fever, profuse diarrhea, abdominal pain, leukocytosis ≥15,000/μl, elevated creatinine)

Vancomycin 125 to 500 mg orally 4 times/day for 10 to 14 days

Severe disease, complicated (hypotension, shock, toxic megacolon, ileus)

Vancomycin 500 mg enterally by nasogastric tube and/or rectal enema 4 times/day with or without intravenous metronidazole 500 mg every 8 hours

Adapted using data from [6,43,44,54,56,79,92].

Gould and McDonald Critical Care 2008 12:203   doi:10.1186/cc6207