• Seong-Su Nah and Sunmi Yoo.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, College of Medicine, Choenan, Korea.
• J Crit Care. 2013 Aug 1;28(4):328-34.

PurposeThe study aimed to determine whether improvements in intensive care unit (ICU) structural environment affect the incidence of ICU-acquired infections (IAIs), particularly those caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens.MethodsThe incidence of IAI and the number of infections caused by organisms during the 6 months immediately before ICU renovation and during the 6 months immediately after ICU renovation were compared. The observational duration was prolonged for an additional 1 year after recruiting the after-renovation data to observe if the found effect of ICU structural renovation is maintained. The relevant data were prospectively gathered.ResultsThe overall IAI incidence and distribution of infection site showed no difference in both periods. In IAI-causing pathogens, no considerable difference was found between before and after renovation, except for Acinetobacter baumannii. In comparison of the major pathogens' identification rate between the entire hospital and the renovated ICU during the study periods, only A baumannii cases in the renovated ICU significantly decreased. However, the reduction of the IAI cases by A baumannii was not sustained for more than 1 year.ConclusionsThese results suggest that structural ICU renovations only may not improve overall IAI incidence, except for transient decrease in IAI by A baumannii.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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