[Trends of hospital infections at an oncology center, 1986-1996]

To describe the results of ten years of nosocomial infection (NI) surveillance in an oncology center.

This is a descriptive study of the Infection Control and Surveillance Program Committee at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, conducted in 1997. From June 1986 to December 1996, we surveyed 62,733 hospital discharge records. Criteria used to classify nosocomial infections were those outlined in 1972 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta (GA). Survey data were collected through review of microbiology chart records and of hospital chart records of febrile patients, patients receiving antibiotics, and patients visited after surgery. We calculated the rates of NI as the number of infections/100 discharges.

The rate of NI per 100 discharges was 4.4 in 1986, 7.7 in 1987, 8.1 in 1988, 5.9 in 1989, 4.6 in 1990, 5.1 in 1991, 4.3 in 1992, 5.4 in 1993, 7.6 in 1994, 7.1 in 1995 and 8.5 in 1996. Escherichia coli was the microorganism most frequently isolated. From 1987, an increase of almost seven times in fungi isolations as well as enterococci was observed.

An increasing trend in NI rates was observed in the last four years, probably related to multiple factors such as improved surveillance (better reporting) and a real increase in the frequency of NI.