Infection control in critical care.
Most common nosocomial infections in the intensive care setting are nosocomial urinary tract infections, nosocomial pneumonia, and intravascular line-related infections. Patients in the intensive care setting rapidly become colonized by nosocomial gram-negative organisms. The colonization of the patient precedes actual infection and provides some indicator of the microflora of the intensive care unit as well as early warning of the potential for outbreaks in the unit. Infection control in the intensive care unit is of vital importance in preventing colonization of microbes as well as in the recognition and interruption of outbreaks of nosocomial infections. In this article are discussed nosocomial infections in patients in the intensive care unit from the infection control standpoint.
Yannelli
B
B
Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, NY 11501.
Gurevich
I
I
D003422:Critical Care; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans