The prevalence study of hospital-acquired infections at different surgical departments in Banjaluka

Introduction: Prevalence study is simple, cheap and fast method that provides information about hospital-acquired infections (HAI). Objective: To assess the HAI prevalence at different surgical departments in the Clinical Center of Banjaluka. Method: A point prevalence study design was used. All patients (N = 174) hospitalized on July, 1st, 1999 were included in the study. The study was performed by following the CDC guidelines. All patients with clinically manifested infections on the day of study in all surgical departments were recorded. Infections of more than one site in the same patient were considered separate infections. Results: The overall prevalence of patients with HAI was 16.1% (28/174; 95%CI = 10.4-21.6) and the overall HAI prevalence was 18.4% (32/174). Surgical-site infections were the most prevalent (6.3%) followed by skin/soft tissue infections (4.6%) and urinary tract infections (4.0%). More than two thirds (87.5%) of HAI were microbiologically documented. The most commonly isolated microorganisms were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (29.7%), Enterobacter spp. (24.3%) and Staphylococcus aureus (16.2%). Conclusion: This point prevalence study clearly showed the magnitude of HAI problem at different surgical departments in the Clinical Center of Banjaluka, the most prevalent anatomic localizations of HAI, and the most common causes