A study, published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, examines the epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections among surgical and nonsurgical patients receiving care in dedicated pediatric cardiac intensive care units.
Researchers conducted retrospective analyses of 22,839 CICU encounters across 22 CICUs contributing data to the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium clinical registry. The encounters took place from October 2013 to September 2016.
Here are six study findings:
1. HAIs occurred in 2.4 percent of CICU encounters at a rate of 3.3 HAIs per 1,000 CICU days.
2. Seventy-three percent of HAIs occurred in children younger than 1 years old.
3. Aggregate rates for the four primary HAIs were:
• Central line-associated blood stream infections: 1.1 per 1,000 line days
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections: 1.5 per 1,000 catheter days
• Ventilator-associated pneumonia: 1.9 per 1,000 ventilator days
• Surgical site infections: 0.81 per 100 operations
4. Surgical and nonsurgical patients had similar HAIs rates per 1,000 CICU days.
5. The following factors were independently associated with HAIs:
• Prematurity
• Younger age
• Presence of congenital anomaly
• Society of Thoracic Surgeons-European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Congenital Heart Surgery Mortality Categories (STAT) 4–5 surgery
• Admission with an active medical condition
• Open sternum
• Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
6. Mortality was 24.4 percent in patients with HAIs versus 3.4 percent in those without.