Abstract

Infections are the main problem encountered in intensive care units (ICU). They may be considered as primary,leading to the admission of patients to the ICU or as hospital acquired infection complications. We analyzed the microbiological material of patients treated during the period of 1993-1995, in whom we diagnosed infections of various location. During this period, we treated 582 patients, 74% following surgical procedures.Primary and acquired infections were noted in 262 patients, out of which 36 had more than one infection focus. In 44% of cases, cultures demonstrated the presence of more than one pathogen. Pulmonary infections composed 42% of all infections, intraabdominal infections - 27%, urinary tract infections - 9%, infections accompanying the use of intravenous catheters - 8%, wound infections - 6% and other infections - 8%. Most often, we isolated gram negative (E. coli, pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria from cultures, but the percentage of gram positive bacteria had increased during the three year period from 17.3 to 25%. Out of Pseudomonas strains, the resistance profile changed with time. During the first year of observation, we noted single cases of resistance towards imipinem, while resistance towards other antibiotics, such as ceftazidim was 20% and quinolones and aminoglycosides 30-45%. In 1995 the resistance towards imipenem increased to 16.6%, for ciprofloxacine - 58% and in the case of aminoglycosides 30-35%. The biggest group out of pluriresistant strains comprised the Enterococcus strains, although we found no vancomycin resistant strain. We observed an increase in resistance towards quinolones (pefloxacin and ciprofloxacin).

Keywords: Intensive Care Units