BACKGROUND Nosocomial infections are public health issues that are associated with high mortality in intensive care units. This study aimed to determine nosocomial infection-associated mortality in Tunisian intensive care units and identify its risk factors. METHODS A prospective cohort study was carried out in intensive care units of a Tunisian University Hospital. The ICUs-wide active surve...

Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. From 1980 to 1990, the incidence of BSIs in U.S. hospitals was estimated to have increased by nearly 70%. In hospitalized patients, BSIs are estimated to account for approximately 10% of all healthcare-associated infections and to have an attributable mortali...

power.” There must be few uses of power more gratifying than to stop an epidemic of bloodstream infections, as demonstrated in the accompanying article by Fridkin et al.1 Catheter-related bloodstream infections are particularly troublesome because of dramatic morbidity, a case fatality rate of 14%,2 and their iatrogenic nature. Detection of an epidemic of infection depends on the method of surv...

power.” There must be few uses of power more gratifying than to stop an epidemic of bloodstream infections, as demonstrated in the accompanying article by Fridkin et al.1 Catheter-related bloodstream infections are particularly troublesome because of dramatic morbidity, a case fatality rate of 14%,2 and their iatrogenic nature. Detection of an epidemic of infection depends on the method of surv...

BACKGROUND Abdominal surgical site infections (SSI) cause substantial morbidity and mortality for patients undergoing operative procedures. We determined the incidence of and risk factors for SSI after abdominal surgery in the Department of Abdominal Surgery at the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo (UCCK). METHODOLOGY Prospective surveillance of patients undergoing abdominal surgery was pe...

BACKGROUND Catheter-associated blood stream infections (CA-BSI) and catheter-related blood stream infections (CR-BSIs) differ in the degree of proof required to show that the catheter is the cause of the infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance [NNIS] group) collects da...

Background Surgical site infections (SSI) are the common nosocomial infection in surgical patients, and are a significant source of postoperative morbidity resulting in increased hospital stay, morbidity and cost. Objective The objective of this study was to obtain the incidence of SSI and determine various risks factors influencing the SSI rate with special reference to the National Nosocomial...

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP*) is the most common nosocomial infection encountered in the ICU setting. Injured patients are particularly prone to VAP due in part to injuries such as direct chest trauma with pulmonary contusion and inability to control oropharyngeal secretions associated with traumatic brain injury. Post-injury immunosuppression is a recognized complicating factor of sev...

This report is a summary of Device-Associated (DA) module data collected by hospitals participating in the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) for events occurring between January and December 2009 and reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by October 18, 2010. This report updates previously published DA module data from the NHSN and provides contemporary compara...

Enterococcus faecalis, formerly classified as Streptococcus faecalis, belongs to Lancefield group D and is frequently isolated from nosocomial infections. Of the nosocomial infections reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in its National Nosocomial Infection Survey (NNIS), enterococci were isolated from 11% of cases. Frequently, E. faecalis is recovered as one of several kinds of ba...