Nosocomial infections in burn patients: etiology, antimicrobial resistance, means to control

The aim of our study was to determine the etiology of nosocomial infections, their changes over a period of five years (2007-2011), and the measures for control of infections and antimicrobial resistance in the Burns Clinic of the N.I. Pirogov University Multi-Profile Hospital for Active Treatment and Emergency Medicine, Sofia, Bulgaria. The medical records for all the patients and the database of the "Clinical Microbiology and Surveillance of Infections" National Information System were reviewed and analyzed to identify the microbial pathogens isolated in our burns Clinic. The three most frequent nosocomial pathogens were S. aureus, A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa. In order to control effectively nosocomial infections, a system of anti-infective and anti- microbial resistance measures has been developed and routinely implemented in our Clinic since 2008. Since 2009, thanks to this system, there has been a significant decrease in the rates of multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains. Although at present the incidence of the nosocomial infections in our burns clinic is lower than in neighboring countries, several important infection control issues still need to be solved. We mainly rely on updating and strengthening the existing anti-infective system in order to control the spread of multi-drug resistant organisms, such as A. baumannii, extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, and carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa.