Nosocomial urinary tract infections due to enterococcus. Ten years' experience at a university hospital

From 1975 through 1984, 473 cases of enterococcal nosocomial urinary tract infection (UTI) were identified by prospective hospital-wide surveillance at the University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville. The rate of infection increased progressively from 12.3 to 32.2 cases per 10 000 patient discharges, and the proportion of nosocomial UTIs due to this organism increased from 6% to 16%. During the study period, crude mortality was 15%. Patients with the diagnosis of neurogenic bladder accounted for 26% of cases and had a crude mortality of 7.3%; all other cases (74%) had a crude mortality of 18.1%. Risk factors associated with fatal outcome in cases having a nosocomial enterococcal UTI included age of more than 50 years, concurrent acute respiratory failure, hospitalization on the internal medicine service, and concurrent gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Enterococcus is the second most frequent cause of nosocomial UTI in our hospital. The emergence of this pathogen may reflect, in part, its selective advantage imparted by resistance to cephalosporin antibiotics.