title: Mortality attributable to hospital-acquired infections among surgical patients.
abstract: We performed a multicenter prospective matched cohort study to evaluate the mortality attributable to hospital-acquired infections among 12,791 patients admitted to surgical departments. We were able to match 731 patients with 1 or more hospital-acquired infections (ie, case patients) with 731 patients without a hospital-acquired infection (ie, control patients) at a 1:1 ratio. Of the 731 case patients, 42 (5.7%) died; of the 731 control patients, 23 (3.1%) died--a significant difference of 2.6%.
authors.affiliation: German National Reference Center for Surveillance of Nosocomial Infections, Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany. christine.geffers@charite.de
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Geffers
authors.forename: Dorit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sohr
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gastmeier
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000145:classification / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000401:mortality*; D055815:Young Adult