Risk factors associated with urinary tract infections in intensive care patients

Introduction: Urinary tract infections ( UTI) are common in intensive care units (ICU) due to the high prevalence of urinary catheters. We aimed to determine risk factors for urinary tract infection to inform potential interventions to reduce this infection in ICU patients. Methods: We performed a case-control-control study to determine risk factors for symptomatic UTIs, compared to asymptomatic bacteruria and control patients. Results: We identified 90 patients with symptomatic urinary tract infections and 90 patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria, and 344 control patients without bacteriuria or urinary tract infection between January 2007 and August 2009. A higher proportion of patients with symptomatic UTIs had catheters placed in emergency or the operating theatres than in ICU. The risk of infection increased with increasing APACHE 2 score. The median duration of admission prior to symptomatic UTI was 6 days, and asymptomatic bacteriuria was 9 days. Discussion: UTIs tended to occur early in the course of ICU admission, and were more common in surgical patients, particularly where the catheter was placed in emergency or the operating room. (C) 2016 Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.