- Poster presentation
- Open access
- Published:
Clinical impact and outcome of clostridium non-difficile infection in critically ill patients
Intensive Care Medicine Experimental volume 3, Article number: A117 (2015)
Introduction
Clostridium species are gram-positive, anaerobic, spore-forming bacteria and some species have pathogenic nature. There is limited data regarding Clostridium non-difficile infection in critically ill patients available. Symptoms of infection are often non-specific, which leads to delayed diagnosis and therapy initiation in these patients.
Objectives
Aim of this study was to evaluate patients with positive microbiological cultures of Clostridium non-difficile infection with the need of critical care medicine.
Methods
Patients with microbiological result of Clostridium non- difficile infection admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) were included in this study. Patient´s characteristics including admission diagnosis, severity of illness (SOFA- score), therapeutic procedures and outcome were recorded.
Results
A total of 47 critically ill patients (32 men, mean age 66 ± 9 years, mean SOFA-score on admission 9 ± 3) with Clostridium non-difficile infection were included in this study. The most common pathogens were Clostridium innocum (n = 23), Clostridium perfringens (n = 11), Clostridium tertium (n = 6) and others (n = 7). Pathogens were detected in 62% intra-abdominal, in 29% in blood cultures and 8% of patients had soft tissue infection. Intra-abdominal infections (71%) were the most common source of infection.
Admission diagnoses were septic shock (54%), surgical treatment (44%) and others (2%). Highest incidence of septic shock was seen in patients with Clostridium innocum infection, (p < 0.05). Preexisting, mostly abdominal (90%) malignancy was seen in 46% of these patients. Invasive ventilation was needed in 50%, vasopressor therapy in 71% and renal replacement therapy in 38%. The overall ICU mortality was 45%. Highest ICU mortality rate was found in patients with Clostridium innocum infection (45%), followed by Clostridium perfringens (23%) and Clostridium tertium (17%). Patients with septic shock showed significantly higher mortality rates (p < 0.05). By means of source of infection highest mortality rate was found in abdominal infection (65%) followed by bacteremia (43%).
Conclusions
Clostridium non-difficile infection in critically ill patients is associated with high mortality and organ failure. Worst outcome was observed in patients with septic shock.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Rutter, K., Walther, S., Horvatits, T. et al. Clinical impact and outcome of clostridium non-difficile infection in critically ill patients. ICMx 3 (Suppl 1), A117 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/2197-425X-3-S1-A117
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2197-425X-3-S1-A117