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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Lab Physicians 2014; 6(01): 036-039
DOI: 10.4103/0974-2727.129089
Original Article

Hospital Acquired Infections: Preventable Cause of Mortality in Spinal Cord Injury Patients

Authors

  • Sanjeev Lalwani

    Department of Forensic, Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

  • Parul Punia

    Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

  • Purva Mathur

    Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

  • Vivek Trikha

    Department of Orthopedics, Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

  • Gurudutta Satyarthee

    Department of Orthopedics, Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

  • Mahesh C Misra

    Department of Surgery, Jai Prakash Narayan Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

Source of Support: Nil.
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ABSTRACT

Background: There is an alarming rate of morbidity and mortality observed in the trauma victims who suffer spinal cord injuries (SCI). Such patients are admitted immediately and stay for longer periods of time and thus are at risk of acquiring nosocomial infections.

Aims: The aim of this study is to analyze the primary cause of mortality in SCI patients.

Design: Retrospective study.

Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective 4 year analysis of the postmortem data of 341 patients who died after sustaining SCI at a tertiary care apex trauma center of India. Epidemiological data of patients including the type of trauma, duration of hospital stay, cause of death and microbiological data were recorded.

Results: On autopsy, out of 341 patients, the main cause of death in the SCI patients was ascertained to be infection/septicemia in 180 (52.7%) patients, the rest 161 (47.2%) died due to severe primary injury. Respiratory tract infections (36.4%) were predominant followed by urinary tract infections (32.2%), blood stream infections (22.2%), wound infections (7.1%) and meningitis reported in only 5 (2.1%) cases. Acinetobacter sp (40%) was the predominant organism isolated, followed by Pseudomonas sp (16.3%), Klebsiella sp (15.1%), Candida sp (7.8%), Escherichia coli (6.9%), Staphylococcus aureus (6.9%), Proteus sp (3.3%), Enterobacter sp and Burkholderia sp (two cases each) and Stenotrophomonas sp (one case). A high level of multidrug resistance was observed.

Conclusions: Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are leading cause of loss of young lives in trauma patients; hence efforts should be made to prevent HAIs.

Key words:

Hospital acquired infections - level of injury - multidrug resistance - respiratory tract infections - spinal cord injury - urinary tract infections


Publication History

Article published online:
19 April 2020

© 2014.

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd.
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