• Oznur Ak, Ayse Batirel, Serdar Ozer, and Serhan Çolakoğlu.
• Department of Infectious Disease and Clinical Microbiology, Dr. Lütfi Kirdar Kartal Teaching and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. akoznur@yahoo.com
• Med. Sci. Monit. 2011 May 1;17(5):PH29-34.

BackgroundTo evaluate the incidence, risk factors and etiology of nosocomial infections (NIs) in the intensive care unit (ICU) of our hospital in order to improve our infection control policies.Material/MethodsA 1-year prospective cohort study of nosocomial infection (NI) surveillance was conducted in our ICU in 2008.ResultsOut of 1134 patients hospitalized in the ICU for a period of 6257 days, 115 patients acquired a total of 135 NIs distributed as follows: 36.3% bacteremia, 30.4% ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), 18.5% catheter-associated urinary tract infection, 7.4% central-line infection, 5.9% cutaneous infection, and 1.3% meningitis. The incidence rate of NI was 21.6 in 1000 patient-days, and the rate of NI was 25.6%. Length of ICU stay, central venous catheterisation, mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy were statistically significant risk factors for NI. Of all NI, 112 (83%) were microbiologically-confirmed and 68.8% of the isolates were Gram-negative, 27.6% were Gram-positive, and 3.6% were fungi. 23 (17%) were clinically-defined infections. The most frequently isolated organism was P. aeruginosa (25%), followed by S. aureus (21.4%), E. coli (18.7%) and A. baumannii (16.9%).ConclusionsThe bloodstream was the most common site and Gram-negatives were the most commonly reported causes of ICU infections.

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