A nurse-led accelerated procedure for infliximab infusion is well tolerated and effective in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

BackgroundShorter infusions of infliximab for inflammatory bowel disease seem to be as tolerated as standard procedures and nurses may be able to manage them safely.AimsTo test tolerability and effectiveness of a fast nurse-led infusion procedure and the related patients’ satisfaction.MethodsWe retrospectively compared three different regimens adopted in our outpatient infusion unit from 2010 to 2013: Group 1, a standard procedure with two-hour infusions, preceded by hydrocortisone medication (87 patients, 311 infusions); Group 2, a similar regimen without physician supervision (130 patients, 464 infusions); Group 3, a one-hour nurse-led procedure without routine premedication (176 patients, 1356 infusions). Disease characteristics, infusion reactions, infusions per month and patients’ satisfaction were recorded.ResultsThere were significantly fewer infusion reactions in Group 3 than Group 1 (2.2% versus 5.8% respectively; p = 0.001). The only significant risk factor for side effects was premedication (odds ratio 4.71, 95% confidence interval 2.21–10.02, p < 0.001) which was related to the presence of previous side effects. Number of infusions per month increased by 27% (83 versus 61, p < 0.001) without increasing nurses’ workload and patients were satisfied.ConclusionsOur fast nurse-led procedure was well tolerated, effective and satisfactory for patients.