Nosocomial Infection in an Intensive-Care Unit: Identification of Risk Factors

Abstract

The important preventive measures derived from our results are that underlying conditions suffered by the patient at the ICU admission should be corrected promptly, the depression of the patient's level of consciousness with sedatives should be monitored carefully, and the horizontal position of the head of the bed should be avoided totally. Patients with a high risk of infection can be the target of special preventive measures.

Initial Bacterial Colonization in Patients Admitted to a Respiratory Intensive Care Unit:Bacteriological Pattern and Risk Factors

“…Critically ill patients suffer frequently pulmonary and extrapulmonary infections, especially when they have to be admitted to an ICU or require mechanical ventilation [24, 25]. The first step to acquire these infections is the colonization of the mucosa of oropharynx, nose, rectum, and stomach, as it has been demonstrated in other studies [13].…”

Statement of the 4th International Consensus Conference in Critical Care on ICU-Acquired Pneumonia – Chicago, Illinois, May 2002

“…At least three prospective studies, one a RCT, have identified supine positioning to be associated with pneumonia [112,113,114]. Kollef and colleagues [115] demonstrated that transportation out of the intensive care unit is also independently associated with pneumonia development, possibly related to supine positioning during the transport [115].…”

The Prediction of Extubation Success of Postoperative Neurosurgical Patients Using Frequency–Tidal Volume Ratios

“…Attention has now moved toward redefining the decision of patient extubation, as 10-20% of extubations may still fail and require reintubation [21][22][23][24][25]. Multiple weaning parameters have been investigated as possible predictors of extubation outcome [26][27][28][29][30][31]. Breathing frequency-tidal volume ratio (f/V t ) has been the one most studied, although it has not been proven to be accurate [32].…”