the Problem

Health Care Related Infections

Hospital-acquired infections – a serious problem for patients and society

Unnecessary suffering…

Nosocomial infections are infections contracted during diagnostic or treatment procedures and are therefore also known as hospital acquired or health care related infections. Each year nearly 10% of all hospital treated patients (approximately 2 million) suffer clinically significant hospital acquired infections in the United States1,2. Care acquired infections may cause death or have serious long-term consequences for the patient, involving:

…at a high price

According to estimates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hospital acquired infections are directly or indirectly responsible for up to about 100,000 deaths in the United States annually1,2. Hospital acquired infections are among the top causes of death in the developed countries behind heart disease, cancer and stroke3. Hence, care acquired infections require extra healthcare with additional costs, in terms of both prolonging the duration of hospitalization for the patient and higher workload for hospital personnel. The corresponding cost to health care in the US is estimated to about 5 billion USD per year4.

Preventing infections – reducing health care expenditures

Urinary tract infection represents the most common health care related infection, accounting for almost 40% of the total number of nosocomial infections5. As many as 80% of the urinary tract infections follow instrumentation, usually a catheter for drainage of the urinary bladder6.

 

Circle diagram

Breakdown of hospital associated infections into different sites of infection. Hospital acquired urinary tract infection has the highest incidence, accounting for 38% of all care acquired infections7. The excess length of stay and hospital costs associated with each type of infection can vary dramatically.

Bactiguard® prevents infections

Strategies to reduce the incidence of catheter associated urinary tract infection include better sterile techniques and the use of closed drainage systems. Nowadays, focus has been placed on attacking or preventing bacterial entry, as well as discouraging their colonization of the catheter surface. One good example is the Bactiguard® surface technology, that is based on an extremely thin colloidal coating of noble metals chemically bonded to the surface of medical devices. The Bactiguard® coating is among other applied on C.R. Bard’s Bardex IC® and LubriSil IC® indwelling urinary catheters. The antimicrobial effectiveness of these catheters has been clinically proven in clinical trials of 30.000 patients and well over 50.000 patients in cohort studies.

References

1 Sentinel Event Alert • Issue 28 – January 22, 2003

2 www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/healthcare/problem.htm

3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (National Center for Health Statistics), Deaths: Final Data for 1997. National Vital Statistics Reports: Deaths: Leading Causes for 1999. Volume 49, Number 11, October 12, 2001

4 Macías AE et al., Infection control: Old problems and new challenges. Archives of Medical Research 2005;36:637-45

5 Vincent JL et al., The prevalence of nosocomial infection in intensive care units in Europe: results of the European Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC) study. EPIC International Advisory Committee. JAMA 1995;274: 639-644

6 Edward S. Wong. Guideline for Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections. http://www.cdc.gov/

7 Jarvis WR. Selected aspects of the socioeconomic impact of nosocomial infections: morbidity, mortality, cost and prevention. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 17: 552-557, 1996.

 

Patient

Equipment