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. 2014 Jan;58(1):30-5.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5049.126785.

Health-care-associated infections: Risk factors and epidemiology from an intensive care unit in Northern India

Priya Datta  1 , Hena Rani  1 , Rajni Chauhan  1 , Satinder Gombar  2 , Jagdish Chander  1
Affiliations

Health-care-associated infections: Risk factors and epidemiology from an intensive care unit in Northern India

Priya Datta et al. Indian J Anaesth. 2014 Jan.

Abstract

Background and aims: Health-care-associated infection is a key factor determining the clinical outcome among patients admitted in critical care areas. The objective of the study was to ascertain the epidemiology and risk factors of health-care-associated infections in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: This prospective, observational clinical study included patients admitted in ICU over a period of one and a half years. Routine surveillance of various health-care-associated infections such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), central-line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI), and ventilator-associated pneumonias (VAP) was done by the Department of Microbiology through specific Infection Surveillance Proforma.

Results: Out of 679 patients, 166 suffered 198 episodes of device-associated infections. The infections included CAUTI, CLABSI, and VAP. The number of urinary tract infection (UTI) episodes was found to be 73 (10.75%) among the ICU patients who had indwelling urinary catheter. In addition, for 1 year CAUTI was calculated as 9.08/1000 catheter days. The number of episodes of blood stream infection was 86 (13.50%) among ICU patients having central line catheters. Also, CLABSI was found to be 13.86/1000 central line days. A total of 39 episodes (6.15%) of VAP was found in ICU patients over 18 months and VAP present for 6.04/1000 ventilator days.

Conclusions: The organisms most commonly associated with health-care-associated infections were Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter species. The risk factors identified as being significantly associated with device associated infections in our ICU were diabetes, COPD and ICU stay for ≥8 days (P < 0.05).

Keywords: Epidemiology; health-care-associated infection; risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

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