[Infections related to invasive devices in COVID-19 patients admitted to critical care units]

COVID-19 patients admitted to critical care units present an intense inflammatory response and the need to replace organs or systems for long periods of time, which facilitates the presence of infectious complications.

To present the national rates of infections related to invasive devices (IRDI) in COVID-19 patients, as well as the rates of multi-resistant bacteria (MBR) acquired during their stay in critical care units.

Retrospective analysis of COVID-19 patients included during the first, second and fourth waves of the pandemic in a national observational and multicenter database (ENVIN-HELICS). Pneumonias related to mechanical ventilation (N-MV), urinary tract infections related to urethral catheter (UTI-SU) and primary bacteremia related to central venous catheters (BP-CVC) were recorded, whose rates are presented as incidence density (ID). The BMRs acquired during the stay in the critical care units were recorded and presented as cumulative incidence (CI).

Seven thousand seven hundred seventy-eight patients were included, 1,525 (19.6%) in the first wave of the pandemic, 3,484 (44.8%) in the second, and 2,769 (35.6%) in the fourth. ICU stay of 21 days in the first and second waves and 19.7 days in the fourth. Intra-ICU mortality in the first wave, decreasing from 31% to 26.3% in the second and 18.9% in the fourth. N-MV rates of 14.31, 13.56, and 19.99 episodes per 1,000 days of MV in each wave. UTI-SU rates of 6.54, 5.63 and 7.97 episodes per 1000 days of SU. BP-CVC rates of 12.42, 7.95, and 8.13 per 1,000 CVC days. The BMR rate was 22.9, 15.3, and 15.3 BMR per 100 admitted patients.

High rates of the different IRDI in COVID patients that are maintained in the three waves analyzed. High rates of BMR acquired during the stay in critical care units with a tendency to decrease in the fourth wave.