5. Hospital Acquired Infections Flashcards
3 terms for generality of hospital acquired infections
- Hospital acquired infections (HAI)
- Healthcare associated infections (HCAI)
- Nosocomial infections
Hospital accquired infections - definition
—> Infections arising as a consequence of providing healthcare
• Must be an infection that you didn’t have before hospital admission
• Neither present nor incubating at time of admission (Onset is at least 48 hours after admission)
• Also includes infections in hospital visitors and healthcare workers = people in hospitals
Consequences of hai s
Result in increase in: • Length of hospitalization = longer stay in hospital, treatment • Morbidity • Cost of care • Mortality (some cases)
Highest prevalence of HAIs
- generally in ICU (intensive care units)
• People in ICU may be immunocompromised – therefore more vulnerable
• Patients may be on ventilators, IV lines – exposed breakages of the skin
6 main types of HAIs
- Respiratory tract infections (pneumonia/other respiratory infections) - 22.8%
- Urinary tract infections - 17.2%
- Surgical site infections (SSI) - 15.7%
- Clinical sepsis - 10.5%
- Gastrointestinal infections - 8.8%
- Bloodstream infections - 7.3%
5 routes of infection transmission
Routes of entry of microbes:
- Skin: 10%
- Gastrointestinal (21%)
- Respiratory (14%)
- Urogenital (20%)
- Person to person transmission (respiratory/faecal-oral)
Predisposing factors in patients - for HAIs
- Extremes of age
- Young people<6 – not immunocompromised
- older people – low immune system
- Obesity/malnourished
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Maybe due to drugs taken
- Immunosuppression
- e.g. HIV
- Smoker
- Surgical patient
- Emergency admission
- Prosthetic devices
Bacteria causing HAIs
• (Staphylococcus aureus including MRSA, Clostridium difficile, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa)
Viruses causing HAIs
• (Blood borne viruses hepatitis B, C, HIV, Norovirus, Rotavirus, SARSCoV-2)
Fungi causing HAIs
• (Candida albicans, Aspergillus species)
Parasites causing HAIs
• (Cryptosporidium spp - patient with cryptosporidiosis contaminated ice cubes through frequent use of the ice machines
Simple ventilator system
- Big tube goes right into their lung
* If anything enters this system it can easily enter lung and establish infection
Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP)
Pneumonia develops in 5-20% of mechanically ventilated patients
- Mortality of ventilator associated infection is 10% = high
- Associated complication- pulmonary ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) , pneumothorax, pulmonary oedema.
Pathogenesis of Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP)
- Micro aspiration of oropharyngeal pathogens around the cuff
- Micro aspiration of gastro-enteric regurgitated secretion
- Bio film (sugar covering) within the endotracheal tube
- Cross contamination via respiratory equipment
Ventilator associated pneumonia
- Early causative pathogens
EARLY (<5 days) - less than 5 days on ventilator
• Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, sensitive enteric Gram negative rods (GNR)
Ventilator associated pneumonia
- late causative pathogens
LATE (>5days) - after 5 days on ventilator
• MRSA, Pseudomonas species, multi-drug resistant organisms
Ventilator associated pneumonia - bundle
- Elevation of the head of the bed 30 degrees to prevent aspiration
- Sedation holiday to check for continued ventilation needs
- Weaning trials to indicate if the ventilator is still needed daily
- = assess if they still need ventilator at regular intervals
- Medication to prevent gastrointestinal bleeding (Stress-related mucosal disease is a typical complication of critically ill patients)
- DVT Prophylaxis (Thromboembolism is a major complication in these patients)
- Sub-glottal suctioning to prevent colonization and infection from pooling of secretions must be done every 4 hours
- Prevent buildup of secretions that allow microorganisms to grow
• Oral care to prevent accumulation of oral bacteria every 4 hours
Catheter related blood stream infections
→ how can they occur
- Introduction of skin pathogens at the time of insertion
- Contamination of the catheter hub(s)
- Contaminated infusate
- Migration of skin pathogens into the cutaneous catheter tract
- Hematogenous seeding from a distant infectious focus – spread microorganisms ?????
- Most common pathogens: S. epidermidis, S. aureus, Candida albicans
Catheter related blood stream infections
- prevention measures
- Fill out central line insertion check list – before inserting catheter iv line etc
- Hand Hygiene prior to insertion
- Use standardized supply kit that is all inclusive for the insertion of central venous catheter
- Use maximal barrier precautions (Full body drape, wearing of cap, mask, gown and gloves) = PPE
- Clean Skin with Chlorhexidine and allow to air dry = remove microorganisms
- Need for continuation of catheter is evaluated on a daily bases = evaluate IV lines look for signs of infection
- Central line dressings are changed every 7 days
- Positive pressure caps are used on all central line (IV line) posts and changed every 7 days
What are Surgical site infections (SSI)
• occur within 30 days postop, or within 1year if an implant is left (e.g. hip or knee), and infection appears to be related to the operation
○ As some microorganisms may be slow growing, or go to sleep at the site so no signs til later
• Most SSIs occur between 5-10 days post-operation
3 types of Surgical site infections (SSI)
- Superficial incisional SSI: skin + subcutaneous tissue
- Deep incisional SSI: deep soft tissue(fascia + muscle)
- Organ/space SSI: organs, body cavities, sub-integumental spaces
Organisms causing SSIs
Enterobacterales (mainly present in bowel but can be disloged) -caused SSI are most prevalent in large bowel surgery, contributing 48.5% of superficial SSIs and 55.7% of deep or organ/space SSIs.
Infecting organisms in hip and knee surgery
• Methicillin Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus – Hip 32%, Knee 40.7% (MOST COMMON IN HIP AND KNEE)
• Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus – Hip 4%, Knee 3.1%
• Coagulase-negative Staphylococci – Hip 25.1%, Knee 23.9%
Infections can also be caused by a mixture of organisms
Prevention measures for Surgical site infections (SSI)
• Screened (patient and staff) prior to surgery for MRSA
• chlorhexidine washes/ shower
– pre operation to steralise them
- Alcohol containing skin prep (2% chlorhexidine gluconate in 70% isopropyl alcohol solution)
- Preoperative antibiotics
• Appropriate hair removal
– microorganisms at base of hair
• Euglycemia
– anyone with diabetes has it controlled
- Optimise tissue oxygenation
- Wound care
- Best practice checklist
- Surveillance for SSI
- Educate providers, patient regarding SSI
CAUTI - Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection
• Urinary Catheter Associated Infections are defined as an infection occurring 48 hours after insertion of a urinary catheter, signs and symptoms of infection (fever, pain, frequency, urgency, increased white count, etc.) and a positive urine culture of ≥ 103 cfu/ml
CAUTI – causative organisms
• Multidrug resistant Enterobacteriaceae (MDRE)
– Escherichia coli
– Klebsiella, Proteus and Pseudomonas species
• Candida albicans
Prevention of CAUTI
- Evaluation of catheter need prior to insertion
- Hand Hygiene should be done immediately before and after any manipulation of the catheter site
- Closed Catheter System
- Catheter securement system
- Urinary collection bag not to be higher than the bladder
- Urinary collection bag not to rest on the floor – but should be at a lower level than the patietn
- The catheter and collecting tube should be free of kinking
- The collecting bag should be emptied regularly
Multiresistant organisms
Definition
- MRO’s are bacteria that have become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat infections caused by them
- In hospitals a lot of antibiotics used, easier for resistance to spread
3 multiresistant organisms
• Multidrug resistant organisms of concern are
– Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).- glycomyacin, titroplanin
– Vancomycin resistant Enterococci (VRE)
– Multidrug resistant Enterobacteriaceae (
Antimicrobial resistance
—> Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of a microbe to resist the effects of medication that once could successfully treat the microbe.
Antibiotic resistance
- The term antibiotic resistance is a subset of anti-microbial resistance, as it applies only to bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.
- Only need one resistant bacteria for resistance to spread
Antimicrobial resistance - factors to consider
- Duration of antibiotics
- Use of broad spectrum antibiotics (also have side effects tho)
- Hygiene
4 ways Antibiotic resistance can occur
Bacteria can cause
- Inactivation of antibiotic (eg. beta - lactamase)
- Alteration of target- or binding site
- Alteration of metabolic pathway
- Reduced drug accumulation