Intensive care unit-acquired infections: is postdischarge surveillance useful?

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_B2B995B913EF
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Intensive care unit-acquired infections: is postdischarge surveillance useful?
Journal
Critical care medicine
Author(s)
Hugonnet S., Eggimann P., Sax H., Touveneau S., Chevrolet J.C., Pittet D.
ISSN
0090-3493 (Print)
ISSN-L
0090-3493
Publication state
Published
Issued date
12/2002
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
30
Number
12
Pages
2636-2638
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
To assess the added value of surveying patients after discharge from the intensive care unit.
Prospective cohort study.
Medical intensive care unit of a large teaching hospital.
All patients admitted to the intensive care unit for 48 hrs or more from October 1995 to November 1997.
We prospectively surveyed 1,068 patients during their intensive care unit stay and for 5 days after intensive care unit discharge. We detected 554 intensive care unit-acquired infections, yielding an infection rate of 70.7 per 1,000 patient days. Of these, only 31 infections (5.6%) in 27 patients were detected after intensive care unit discharge. If postdischarge surveillance was targeted on patients who had had a central vascular catheter while in the intensive care unit, only one infected patient would have been missed, but only 554 out of 889 would have been followed up (sensitivity, 96.2%; specificity, 38.7%; negative predictive value, 99.7%).
Surveillance of all patients discharged from the medical intensive care unit is not recommended, as it is resource demanding and allows the detection of few additional infections. However, targeted postdischarge surveillance could be a rational alternative, and selection criteria need to be refined and validated.
Keywords
Aftercare/methods, Cross Infection/epidemiology, Cross Infection/prevention & control, Humans, Intensive Care Units, Population Surveillance, Predictive Value of Tests, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sensitivity and Specificity, Switzerland/epidemiology
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
24/01/2008 17:57
Last modification date
09/04/2024 7:14
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