Nosocomial infections in the intensive care unit: type and rates of pathogens

The adoption of appropriate protocols for the prevention of nosocomial infections was shown to prevent up to 35% of hospital acquired infections. The hands of the people who work in the hospital, especially nurses and doctors, play a key role in the transmission of nosocomial infections, with the hospital environment itself playing only a marginal role. The aim of the study was to analyze the rates and types of pathogens isolated in our intensive care unit over a ten-year period.We retrospectively collected and analyzed the results of all the microbiological samples of the patients admitted to the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit of San Raffaele Scientific Institute from 2001 to 2010.Twenty-eight percent of the 8153 microbiological examinations performed in the study period had a positive result with a pathogen isolated (see figure 1). Pathogens were most frequently isolated from samples taken from intravascular catheters, who had a positive result in 29% (as shown in figure 2). The predominant pathogens overall are presented in figure 3. Candida spp was isolated much more in blood samples (15%), and in deep tracheal aspirates (20%) compared to the average number of Candida spp isolation in the total of the microbiological examinations performed .