Nosocomial infection in an eye hospital: incidence and occurrence patterns

To describe the incidence and occurrence patterns of nosocomial infections in a large eye hospital over a 6-year period.

Medical records of 94,013 consecutive inpatients admitted to Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre, Guangzhou, China, from 1996 to 2002, were reviewed. Demographic data and infection diagnoses were collected. Nosocomial infection was defined as an infection that was absent during preadmission assessments but detected at least 48 h after admission to the hospital, or occurred after surgical procedures performed within the hospital.

The cumulative incidence of nosocomial infections over a 6-year period was 0.28%. The most common infections were acute conjunctivitis (45.5%) and upper respiratory tract infection (36.4%), followed by suppurative endophthalmitis (8.3%). Patients with acute conjunctivitis were predominantly adults aged from 15 to 59 years (60%), while patients with upper respiratory tract infection were predominantly children of 14 years or younger (74.0%), and those with endophthalmitis predominantly older persons 60 years or older (68.2%). Conditional pathogenic bacteria, mainly gram-positive, were responsible for most suppurative endophthalmitis cases.

Although nosocomial infection incidence is relatively low in this eye hospital, our data suggest that different subgroups of patients are prone to certain types of infection. Specific preventive strategies targeting different subgroups of inpatients may further reduce the infection incidence.