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Epidemiologic, clinical, and economic evaluation of an outbreak of clonal multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infection in a surgical intensive care unit

Young LS, Sabel AL, Price CS

Infection control and hospital epidemiology, 2007

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To determine risk factors for acquisition of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii infection during an outbreak, to describe the clinical manifestations of infection, and to ascertain the cost of infection.

DESIGN: Case-control study.

SETTING: Surgical intensive care unit in a 400-bed urban teaching hospital and level 1 trauma center.

PATIENTS: Case patients received a diagnosis of infection due to A. baumannii isolates with a unique pattern of drug resistance (ie, susceptible to imipenem, variably susceptible to aminoglycosides, and resistant to all other antibiotics) between December 1, 2004, and August 31, 2005. Case patients were matched 1 : 1 with concurrently hospitalized control patients. Isolates' genetic relatedness was established by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

RESULTS: Sixty-seven patients met the inclusion criteria. Case and control patients were similar with respect to age, duration of hospitalization, and Charlson comorbidity score. MDR A. baumannii infections included ventilator-associated pneumonia (in 56.7% of patients), bacteremia (in 25.4%), postoperative wound infections (in 25.4%), central venous catheter-associated infections (in 20.9%), and urinary tract infections (in 10.4%). Conditional multiple logistic regression was used to determine statistically significant risk factors on the basis of results from the bivariate analyses. The duration of hospitalization and healthcare charges were modeled by multiple linear…

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Evidence Hub reads this as a case-control, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause.

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