Impact of satellite blood culture on early diagnosis of sepsis.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess whether satellite blood culture (SBC) can improve turnaround times, antibiotic switching, and patient prognosis, relative to laboratory blood culture (LBC).  . Methods: Patients with sepsis treated in the intensive care units (ICUs) of Henan Provincial People's Hospital from February 5, 2018 to January 19, 2019 who met the inclusion criteria were recruited to the study and divided into the SBC group and LBC group according to different blood culture methods. Patient demographics, blood culture, antibiotic adjustment, and prognosis data were collected and compared between the two groups.  . Results: A total of 204 blood culture sets from 52 ICU patients, including 100 from the medical microbiology LBC group and 104 from the SBC group, were analyzed in this study. There was no significant difference in the positive rates between the two groups. Time from specimen collection to incubation was significantly shorter in the SBC group than that in the LBC group (1.65 h Conclusion: SBC can significantly reduce blood culture turnaround times; however, there were no significant differences between the two blood culture methods in initial reporting of positive cultures, time to adjustment of antibiotic therapy, or medical costs, despite a trend toward improvement.