European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

The incidence of nosocomial infections in Intensive Care Units (ICU) is showing a rising trend mainly because of increasing invasive procedures performed in the ICU. The therapeutic interventions that have been recognized as associated with infectious complications include-indwelling urinary catheters, sophisticated life support, intravenous fluid therapy, cardiovascular prosthetic devices, implantable orthopedic prosthesis, immunosuppressive therapy etc. All the patients in the age group of 1 month to 12 years admitted in PICU with stay of more than 48 hours were daily monitored for fever or any other symptoms or sign suggestive of any infection. The patients who developed the same 48 hours after admission, which was not present at the time of admission, were included. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definitions of nosocomial infections, used as criteria for diagnosis of infections. The most common site of nosocomial infections was blood stream infection (62.1%) followed by ventilator associated pneumonia (17.2%), skin infection (6.9%), urinary tract infection (6.9%) and surgical site infection (6.9%).