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Successful long-term program for controlling methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in intensive care units

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Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of screening strategy and contact precautions for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Design and setting

Prospective observational cohort from 1 February 1995 to 31 December 2001 in three intensive care units (45 beds) in a French teaching hospital.

Patients

8,548 patients admitted to the three ICUs had nasal screening on ICU admission and weekly thereafter. Contact precautions were used in MRSA-positive patients. The following variables were collected: age, gender, severity score, length of stay, workload, and colonization pressure (percentage of patient-days with an MRSA to the number of patient-days in the unit). Alcohol-based handrub solution was introduced in July 2000. We compared the period before this (P1) with that thereafter (P2).

Results

Of the 8,548 admitted patients 554 (6.5%) had MRSA at ICU admission, and 456 of the 7,515 (6.1%) exposed patients acquired MRSA. Acquisition incidence decreased from 7.0% in P1 to 2.8% in P2. Independent variables associated with MRSA acquisition were: age (adjusted odds ratio 1.013), severity score (1.047), length of ICU stay (1.015), colonization pressure (1.019), medical ICU (1.58), and P2 (0.49).

Conclusions

MRSA control in these ICUs characterized by a high prevalence of MRSA at admission was achieved via multiple factors, including screening, contact precautions, and use of alcoholic handrub solution. Our results after adjustment of risk factors for MRSA acquisition and the steady improvement in MRSA over several years strengthen these findings. MRSA spreading can be successfully controlled in ICUs with high colonization pressure.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Catherine Fargeot, PhD (Pharmacy Unit), for providing pharmacy data, Nadine Sauteret (Infection Control Unit), Cécile Durand-Stocco and Pascal Giry (Hospital Information System) for managing administrative data, and the staff of the three intensive care units for their active and valuable participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infection Control Unit, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75877, Paris Cedex 18, France

    Jean-Christophe Lucet, Isabelle Lolom & Claude Deblangy

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75877, Paris Cedex 18, France

    Xavier Paoletti

  3. Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75877, Paris Cedex 18, France

    Catherine Paugam-Burtz

  4. Medical Intensive Care Unit, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75877, Paris Cedex 18, France

    Jean-Louis Trouillet

  5. Infectious Diseases Intensive Care Unit, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75877, Paris Cedex 18, France

    Jean-François Timsit & Bernard Regnier

  6. Bacteriology Laboratory, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75877, Paris Cedex 18, France

    Antoine Andremont

Authors
  1. Jean-Christophe Lucet
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  2. Xavier Paoletti
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  3. Isabelle Lolom
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  4. Catherine Paugam-Burtz
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  6. Jean-François Timsit
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  7. Claude Deblangy
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  9. Bernard Regnier
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Correspondence to Jean-Christophe Lucet.

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Lucet, JC., Paoletti, X., Lolom, I. et al. Successful long-term program for controlling methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in intensive care units. Intensive Care Med 31, 1051–1057 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-005-2679-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-005-2679-0

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