Sources of Infection In The Intensive Care Unit & A Suggested Control System

Abstract

Nosocomial infection (NCI) means the infection which is acquired during hospitalization and which was not present or incubated at the time of admission.

A patient admitted to a hospital in the United States has an approximately 5-l 0% chance of developing NCI.

Rates of NCI in patients requiring over one week of advanced life-support within the ICU are three to five times higher than in hospitalized patients who don't require ICU care. NC infections usually are the most common causes of death directly or indirectly of patients critically ill in the ICU. Nosocomial infections (NCis) are clearly one of the most common and serious complications of the ICU. They are usually a consequence of invasive monitoring or life-support therapies.

In Egypt, a study included 89 patients randomly selected in Menia University Hospital, the highest percentage of NCI was post-operative wound infection (21.6%) followed by urinary tract infection (10.6%), and respiratory infection (2%), and the highest percentage of post-operative wound infection was present in the departments of General Surgery (30.3%), Gynecology (29.4%) and Urology (26.6%).