Duration of colonization with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria after ICU discharge

Readmission of patients colonized with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (AMRB) is important in the nosocomial dynamics of AMRB. We assessed the duration of colonization after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU) with highly resistant Enterobacteriaceae (HRE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).

Data were obtained from a cluster-randomized trial in 13 ICUs in 8 European countries (MOSAR-ICU trial, 2008-2011). All patients were screened on admission and twice weekly for AMRB. All patients colonized with HRE, MRSA, or VRE and readmitted to the same ICU during the study period were included in the current analysis. Time between discharge and readmission was calculated, and the colonization status at readmission was assessed. Because of interval-censored data, a maximum likelihood analysis was used to calculate the survival function, taking censoring into account. A nonparametric two-sample test was used to test for differences in the survival curves.

The MOSAR-ICU trial included 14,390 patients, and a total of 64,997 cultures were taken from 8,974 patients admitted for at least 3 days. One hundred twenty-five unique patients had 141 episodes with AMRB colonization and at least 1 readmission. Thirty-two patients were colonized with two or more AMRBs. Median times until clearance were 4.8 months for all AMRB together, 1.4 months for HRE, <1 month for MRSA, and 1.5 months for VRE. There were no significant differences between the survival curves.

Fifty percent of the patients had lost colonization when readmitted 2 or more months after previous ICU discharge.