Nosocomial infection incidence in patients after hepatic transplantation

Objective

To determine nosocomial infection incidence of patients undergoing liver transplantation.

Methods

It is a descriptive study in a tertiary hospital. Included were all patients admitted to the ICU after liver transplant during 5 years (from 16 April 1996 to 16 April 2001). Infections were diagnosed according to the criteria of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We analyzed the percentage of patients who developed device-associated infection and the number who developed device-associated infection per 1000 days of device-days.

Results

Included were 96 patients (68.25% male). Mean age was 50.87 ± 9.86 years. Mean ICU stay was 7.35 ± 7.54 days. ICU mortality was 13.54%. Etiology of liver failure was: alcoholic cirrhosis 44.06%, virus hepatitis 28.81%, autoinmmune disease 12.70%, metabolic 5.92%, cancer 1.69%, cirrhosis crytogenic 4.30%, genetic disease 0.84%, vascular disease 2.54%. Patients developed further infections: 10 ventilation-associated pneumonias, six central venous catheter-related infections, four abdominal infections, two urinary tract infections, four surgical wound infections. The percentage of patients who developed pneumonia, venous central-related infections and urinary tract infection were, respectively, 10.41%, 2.08% and 6.25%. The number of ventilation-associated pneumonia, central venous catheter-related infections and urinary tract infections per 1000 device-days were, respectively, 28.57, 5.67 and 2.83.

Conclusions

The most frequent infection in patients undergoing liver transplantation was respiratory. Our infection incidence is similar to other seria.