Medical Malpractice
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October 11th, 2006

"Resistant Infections Spread in ICU"

Those who are admitted into intensive care unit (ICU) rooms that were once occupied by patients with antibiotic-resistant bacteria are at an increased risk of developing severe infections, according to the results of a new U.S. study.

The two kinds of resistant bacteria—vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)—are significant causes of serious illness and fatality in hospitals across the nation.

Study Findings

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women''s Hospital analyzed over 8,200 patients (average 61 years of age) who stayed at eight different ICUs a total of 11,528 times between 2003 and 2005.

The study found that out of the 8,200 patients, 658 were infected with VRE and 658 had MRSA upon admittance to the intensive care unit. Furthermore, about 14 percent of the patients stayed in rooms previously occupied by a person with MRSA, and nearly 13 percent had stayed in ICU rooms in which the prior patient had VRE.

According to the study, the patients who were in rooms once occupied by someone with a resistant infection were more likely to acquire the dangerous bacteria than those in rooms never exposed to the bacteria: nearly 4 percent vs. almost 3 percent for MSRA and 4.5 percent vs. 2.8 percent for VRE.

Conclusions

The new study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded that the increased risk factor made up about 7 percent of all new cases of VRE and 5.1 percent of all new cases of MRSA each year.

Additionally, the heightened risk was still present even after hospitals in the study followed room-cleaning and disinfecting procedures beyond the national guidelines indicating that these measures fail to prevent the transmission of dangerous bacteria and infection, said the study authors.

“Additional data are needed to determine whether more intensive cleaning practices can reduce the risk further and, if so, whether this is worthwhile in a resource-limited system,” concluded the authors.

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