Aetiology and prognosis of bacteraemia in Italy

Abstract

A prospective multi-centre study was conducted to assess the microbiological pattern and prognostic factors of bacteraemia and their impact on clinical outcome. All patients admitted to 41 Italian hospitals over 2 months, from whom one or more clinically significant organisms were isolated from blood culture, were studied according to a standardized protocol and case definition. A total of 156 episodes of bacteraemia were identified in 20 601 patients. There were 3.9 episodes of nosocomially acquired bacteraemia and 3.7 episodes of community-acquired bacteraemia per 1000 admissions. The most frequent pathogens isolated were Gram-negative bacteria (44.9%) but Gram-positive species accounted for 40.4% of episodes. Fungal infections due to Candida spp. were found in 3.8% of episodes, and multiple pathogens were recovered from 9.6% of episodes. The clinical response to bacteraemia was classified as sepsis in 90 episodes (57.7%), severe sepsis in 21 (13.5%) and septic shock in 26 (16.7%); 19 episodes (12.2%) showed no clinical response. The total in-hospital mortality was 25.0%. By multivariate logistic regression, the variables which independently predicted mortality were increasing age, the presence of septic shock, infection with Gram-positive bacteria or fungi and nosocomial acquisition. © 2004 Cambridge University Press.