[Microbiologic spectrum and prognostic factors of hospital-acquired pneumonia cases]. / Hastane kökenli pnömoni olgularinda etken dagilimi ve prognoza etkili faktörler.

Nosocomial infections are an important cause of preventable morbidity and mortality; they also result in significant socioeconomic cost. Nosocomial pneumonia (NCP) is defined as pneumonia, which occurs 48 hours after hospitalization or after discharge from the hospital. It is the second or third most frequent infection among all hospital acquired infections, and the mortality of NCP is higher than the other hospital acquired infections. Patients, diagnosed as NCP were retrospectively analyzed in order to detect microbiological agent and prognostic factors. We evaluated 173 patients, 67.0% of them were male and 33.0% female. Comorbid diseases were present in 94.2% and a medical procedure had been applied in 75.1% of cases. A single agent was isolated in 79.2% of the cases while a mixt infection was present in 13.3%. In 7.5% of the cases, cultures were negative. Endotracheal aspirates were the most common materials (38.9%) used for detected microorganism and sputum cultures were used in 16.8% of the cases. Most commonly encountered microorganism were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter spp. and Staphylococcus aureus respectively. NCP developed on approximately 18th day of hospitalization. Overall mortality rate was 45.2%. The effects of diabetes mellitus and chronic pulmonary diseases on mortality rate were analized by logistic regression analysis and it's evaluated that the mortality rates increase 3.7 times with diabetes mellitus and 2.4 times with chronic pulmonary diseases. There was no effect of mechanical ventilation history on mortality.

Nosocomial bloodstream infections associated with Candida species in a Turkish University Hospital.

In recent years, a progressive increase in the frequency of nosocomial candidaemia has been observed, especially among the critically ill or immunocompromised patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the trend in incidence of candidaemia together with potential risk factors in an 850-bed Turkish Tertiary Care Hospital in a 4-year period. A total of 104 candidaemia episodes were identified in 104 patients. The overall incidence was 0.56 per 1000 hospital admissions and the increase in incidence of candidaemia from 2000 to 2003 was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.010). Candida albicans was the most common species (57.7%) and non-albicans species accounted for 42.3% of all episodes. The most common non-albicans Candida sp. isolated was C. tropicalis (20.2%) followed by C. parapsilosis (12.5%). The most frequent risk factors possibly associated with the candidaemia were previous antibiotic treatment (76.9%), presence of central venous catheter (71.2%) and total parenteral nutrition (55.8%). Our results show the fact that the incidence of candidaemia caused by non-albicans species is frequent and increasing significantly, although the most common isolated Candida species were C. albicans and further investigations are necessary to evaluate the mechanisms of increasing incidence of candidaemia caused by non-albicans species.

Hospital-acquired infections in elderly patients: results of a West Anatolian University Hospital surveillance.

The objective of this study was to determine the frequency and the pattern of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in elderly (age over 65) patients, using routine surveillance data collected by the infection control committee in Dokuz Eylül University Hospital. In this study, 199 elderly patients diagnosed with HAIs in the years of 1999-2000 were included. During this period, 22.7% of all patients who had HAI were over 65 years old. The incidence rate of HAI in elderly patients was 1.2%, increasing with age. The most common types of HAIs were surgical site infections, septicemia, lower respiratory tract infections and urinary tract infections.