Objective 

To assess the incidence and to evaluate the feasibility of inter-unit continuous surveillance of intensive care unit (ICU) - acquired infections.

Design 

Prospective multicentre, longitudinal, incidence survey.

Setting 

Five ICUs in university hospitals in western France.

Patients 

All patients admitted to the ICU during two 3-month periods (1994-1995).

Measurements and results 

The main clinical characteristics of the patients, ICU-acquired infections, length of exposure to invasive devices and the micro-organisms isolated were analysed.

The study included 1589 patients (16970 patient-days) and the infection rate was 21.6% (13.1% of patients).

The ventilator-associated pneumonia rate was 9.6%, sinusitis 1.5%, central venous catheter-associated infection 3.5%, central venous catheter-associated bacteraemia 4.8%, catheter-associated urinary tract infection 7.8% and bacteraemia 4.5%. The incidence density rate of ICU-acquired infections was 20.3 patient-days.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia and sinusitis rates were 9.4 and 1.5 ventilation-days, respectively.

Central venous catheter-associated infection and central venous catheter-associated bacteraemia rates were 2.8 and 3.8 catheter-days, respectively.

The catheter-associated urinary tract infection rate was 8.5% o urinary catheter-days and the bacteraemia rate 4.2 patient-days. (...)