Journal
INTENSIVE CARE MEDICINE
Volume 34, Issue 8, Pages 1428-1433Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00134-008-1110-z
Keywords
water fittings; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; environment; acquired infections; intensive care
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Objective: To assess the role of the water environment in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization of patients in intensive care units in the absence of a recognized outbreak. Design and setting: Prospective, single-centre study over an 8-week period in two adult ICUs at a university hospital. Environmental samples were taken from the water fittings of rooms once per week, during a 8-week period. Patients were screened weekly for P. aeruginosa carriage. Environmental and humans isolates were genotyped by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Results: P. aeruginosa was detected in 193 (86.2%) of the 224 U-bend samples and 10 of the 224 samples taken from the tap (4.5%). Seventeen of the 123 patients admitted were colonized with P. aeruginosa. Only one of the 14 patients we were able to evaluate was colonized by a clone present in the water environment of his room before the patient's first positive sample was obtained. Conclusion: The role of the water environment in the acquisition of P. aeruginosa by intensive care patients remains unclear, but water fittings seem to play a smaller role in non-epidemic situations than expected by many operational hospital hygiene teams.
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