Enterococcal infections in a Greek intensive care unit: a 5-y study.
In this study we determined the incidence, resistance pattern, and mortality rate associated with infection caused by Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium among patients in a multidisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU). A total of 111 patients with E. faecalis and 60 with E. faecium infections were identified during a 5-y period (1992-96). We observed an increase in the incidence of enterococcal infections (from 5.46 to 8.46 per 1000 patients-days, p = 0.0112), due mainly to the increased incidence of E. faecium (from 0.45 to 4.06 per 1000 patients-days, p = 0.002). Blood was the most common site of enterococcus isolation. E. faecium was more resistant to antibiotics than E. faecalis, but no vancomycin resistant enterococcus was isolated. Patients with E. faecium infection had a significantly higher mortality than patients with E. faecalis infection (66% vs. 41.5%, p = 0.0035 for infection from any site and 85.7 vs. 47.7%, p = 0.012 for bacteremic patients). r 4n- D I .- .- - .. . .
Routsi
C
C
Department of Critical Care, Medical School of Athens University, Greece.
Platsouka
E
E
Paniara
O
O
Dimitriadou
E
E
Saroglou
G
G
Roussos
C
C
Armaganidis
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000187:drug effects*; D016984:Enterococcus faecium / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D016019:Survival Analysis