A Comparative Analysis of Nosocomial Infections between Internal and Surgical Intensive Care Units of University Hospitals in Birjand, Iran from 2016 to 2017: A Retrospective Study

This research was a retrospective study on the prevalence of nosocomial infections (NIs) and the associated risk factors among the patients admitted to the surgery and internal Intensive Care Units (ICU).

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on patients admitted to ICUs over one year. Clinical data of patients, including demographic information, length of stay, underlining disease, the rate of patients with NIs and distribution of NIs sites and pathogens were collected. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were run to determine the factors associated with NIs.

Collectively, 1018 patients were studied, including patients admitted to surgical ICU (n = 665) and internal ICU (n = 353). The incidence rate of NI in the surgical and internal ICUs was 67 (10.1%) and 96 (27.2%), respectively. The most NIs in the internal ICU were respiratory tract infections (RTI, 46.9%) and urinary tract infections (UTI, 37.5%), while the common infections in the surgical ICU were respiratory tract infections (RTI, 38.3%) and surgical-site infections (SSI, 22.0%), respectively. The major risk factors, length of stay and use of nasogastric intubation (NG tubes), were associated with NIs in both ICUs.

Our results indicated that the incidence of infections in the internal ICU was more than the surgical ICU. Age, underlying diseases, the long stay, and use of ventilator and NG tube were of factors associated with NIs rate in internal ICU.