Abstract
In a three-year prospective investigation, a total of 6,952 patients were investigated prospectively in nine intensive care wards and their rate of nosocomial infections was analysed. The frequency of the nosocomial infections varied between 3% and 27%. The most frequent nosocomial infections were urinary tract infections, sepsis, infections of the skin and of the subcutaneous tissue, pneumonia and wound infections. The most frequent causes of sepsis were ventilation pneumonia, venous catheters, wound infections and urinary tract infections. The pathogen spectrum was analysed. By specific control of infection with employment of an infection control nurse, the frequency of nosocomial infections on intensive care wards was lowered from 17.2% to 14.3% within one year in one of the hospitals.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bennett JV, Brachman PS (1979) Hospital infections. Little, Brown and Company, Boston
Bernander S, Hambraeus A, Myrbäck KE, Nyström, B, Sundelöf B (1978) Prevalence of hospital-associated infections in five swedish hospitals in November 1975. Scand J Infect Dis 10:66
Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia (1972) Outline for surveillance and control of nosocomial infections. Appendix II, May 1970
Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia (1976) National nosocomial infection study report: Annual Summary 1976
Cruse PJE, Foord R (1973) A five-year prospective study of 23, 649 surgical wounds. Arch Surg 107:206
Daschner F (1978) Antibiotikaprophylaxe in der Intensivmedizin. Helv Chir Acta 45:475
Daschner F (1979) Epidemiologie krankenhauserworbener Harnwegsinfektionen. Münch Med Wochenschr 121:1359
Daschner F (ed) (1977) Proven and unproven methods in hospital infection control. G. Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, New York
Edwards LD (1978) The epidemiology of 2056 remote site infections and 1966 surgical wound infections occurring in 1865 patients: A four year study of 40,923 operations at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago. Ann Surg 184:758
Hemming VG, Overall JC Jr, Britt M (1976) Nosocomial Infections in a newborn intensive-care unit. Results of fortyone months of surveillance. N Engl J Med 294:1310
Kunin CM (1979) Urinary tract infections. In: Hospital Infections. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, p 239
Scheckler WE (1978) Nosocomial infections in a community hospital. Arch Intern Med 138:1792
Stamm WE (1978) Infections related to medical devices. Ann Intern Med 89:764
Wenzel RP, osterman CA, Hunting KJ (1976) Hospital-acquired infections. II. Infection rates by site, service and common procedures in a university hospital. Am J Epidemiol 104:645
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dashner, F.D., Frey, P., Wolff, G. et al. Nosocomial infections in intensive care wards: A multicenter prospective study. Intensive Care Med 8, 5–9 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01686847
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01686847