title: Three-year evaluation of nosocomial infection rates of the ICU.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evaluating the incidence of nosocomial and invasive device-related infections enables the comparison of the health care associated infection (HAI) between the intensive care units of different hospitals and different units in the same hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective surveillance study was performed to identify nosocomial infections, device-related infections rates, and causal agents from January 2007 through December 2010 in the Anesthesiology Intensive care unit (ICU). HAI were defined according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) criteria, and invasive device-related infections were defined according to National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System (NNIS) criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During a two-year period, 939 patients were analyzed throughout a total of 7,892 patient- days. The rates of HAI were 53% in 2007, 29.15% in 2008, 28.85% in 2009 while 16.62% in 2010. Most common HAI was blood stream infection. The rate of soft tissue and skin infection was the second most common. Overall, the most common agents were Gram(-) 56.68%, Gram(+) 31.02% and Candida spp 12.3% among patients with nosocomial infections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence of HAI in the ICU of our hospital was high, compared to the Turkish overall rates obtained at the Refik Saydam Center in 2007. When the rates of device-related infections between 2007 and 2008 were compared, they were higher in 2007. The rates of device- related infections were diminished in 2008 to below-national mean rates by infection control measures. Since the rate of urinary catheter-related infections are still high, we should exert continuous efforts for infection control.
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department, Ankara Kecioren Training and Research Hospital, Turkey.
authors.forename: Necla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dereli
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department, Ankara Kecioren Training and Research Hospital, Turkey.
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozayar
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department, Ankara Kecioren Training and Research Hospital, Turkey. Electronic address: drsemih@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Semih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Degerli
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department, Ankara Kecioren Training and Research Hospital, Turkey.
authors.forename: Saziye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sahin
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases Department, Ankara Kecioren Training and Research Hospital, Turkey.
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Koç
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Cross Infection; Intensive Care Units; Outcome Assessment (Health Care).