Abstract
Objective: To characterize the epidemiology of polymicrobial bacteremia (PMB) among critically ill patients. Design: Prospective clinical study. Setting: University medical center. Patients: All patients with positive blood cultures in a medical-surgical ICU. Measurements: PMB represents 8.4% of all true bacteremia in our ICU. Most of these patients were post-operative but none had malignancies or significant immunodepression. Over three-quarters of the episodes were nosocomial. No significant differences in factors associated with PMB were found when they were compared with a cohort of 154 monomicrobial episodes. Enterobacteriaceae were the most common organisms. Intravascular devices (42.8%) were the most common source of PMB, followed by intra-abdominal origin (21.4%). The overall mortality was 7.1%, a lower rate than has previously been described. Conclusions: We suggest catheter replacement in patients who develop PMB and improving techniques of catheter maintenance in order to reduce its incidence. © 1993 Springer-Verlag.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 22-25 |
Journal | Intensive Care Medicine |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 1993 |
Keywords
- Catheter-related bacteremia
- Critically ill patients
- Epidemiology
- Polymicrobial bacteremia