[Community infections that require admission to the ICU]

The clinical and diagnostic characteristics and treatment of the most severe and frequent community-acquired infections in the Intensive Care Units are analyzed. These are serious community-acquired pneumonias, meningitis, encephalitis and urinary tract infections. Regarding the pneumonias, emphasis is placed on the use of the severity scales to evaluate admission in the critical units, on evolutive monitoring using biological markers and on the importance of initiating adequate early antibiotic treatment. The importance of the Gram staining of the cerebral spinal fluid in the etiological diagnosis of meningitis, of the polymerase chain reaction amplification techniques in real time and of the magnetic resonance imaging in the etiological diagnosis of the encephalitis. Furthermore, concern is expressed regarding the increase of the percentage of the strains of extended spectrum betalactamase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in our country.