Incidence of urinary tract and bloodstream infections in Ghotbeddin Burn Center, Shiraz 2000-2001.

Though burn wound infections have been extensively studied, other nosocomial infections (NIs) in burn patients have received less attention. Invasive diagnostic procedures (vascular and bladder catheterization) make the burn patients more susceptible to different nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was to determine the rate of bloodstream and urinary tract infections associated with i.v. line and urinary catheter (UC) in Ghotbeddin Burn Center and also to compare these rates with those of the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System (NNIS) in the USA. This study was conducted over 11 months, from 21st December 2000 to 21st November 2001. All the patients who were admitted for more than 48 h and did not have evidence of infection at the time of admission were included in the study. For diagnosis of urinary tract and bloodstream infections, the standard definitions from the Center for Diseases Control (CDC) were used. Of the total 106 qualifying patients, 91 study patients acquired nosocomial infections (85.85%). Urinary catheter-associated urinary tract infection (UC-UTI) rate was 30 per 1000 urinary catheter days and i.v. line-associated bloodstream infection (i.v. line-BSI) rate was 17 per 1000 i.v. line days. Comparison of incidence rates of UC-UTI and i.v. line-BSI in Ghotbeddin Hospital and NNIS showed that rate of infection to be higher in Ghotbeddin Hospital while device utilization ratio (urinary catheter and central line) was higher in the NNIS hospitals. To reduce the rate of infection at Ghotbeddin Burn Center, education, development of standardized guidelines for the use of invasive devices and introduction of a nosocomial infections surveillance system are necessary.