RESUMEN
Background Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) infection after kidney transplantation (KT) is associated with high mortality. Methods We analysed an outbreak of infection/colonization with IMP-1-producing CRPA on a KT ward, conducting a case-control study. Cases were identified through routine surveillance culture and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for carbapenemase performed directly from rectal swab samples. Controls were randomly selected from patients hospitalized on the same ward during the same period, at a ratio of 3:1. Strain clonality was analysed through pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and whole-genome sequencing was performed for additional strain characterization. Results CRPA was identified in 37 patients, in 51.4% through surveillance cultures and in 49.6% through clinical cultures. The median persistence of culture positivity was 42.5 days. Thirteen patients (35.1%) presented a total of 15 infections, of which 7 (46.7%) were in the urinary tract, among those, 30-day mortality rate was 46.2%. PFGE analysis showed that all of the strains shared the same pulsotype. Multilocus sequence typing analysis identified the sequence type as ST446. Risk factors for CRPA acquisition were hospital stay > 10 days, re-transplantation, urological surgical re-intervention after KT, use of carbapenem or ciprofloxacin in the last three months and low median lymphocyte count in the last three months. Conclusions KT recipients remain colonised by CRPA for long periods and could be a source of nosocomial outbreaks. In addition, a high proportion of such patients develop infection. During an outbreak, urine culture should be added to the screening protocol for KT recipients.