Results

A total of 76 patients hospitalized in 2018 in the Palliative Care Service with various diagnoses, and who had clinical findings of decubitus ulcers during hospitalization and a positive wound swab culture that was considered clinically significant, were included in the study. Among these patients, 40 (52.6%) were male and 36 (47.4%) were female, with a mean age of 70.8±15.6 (18-95) years. Among the diagnoses of the patients, Alzheimer’s disease, CVA and cancer were the most frequently encountered. The distribution of the diagnoses of the patients is presented in Table 1.
Among the 76 patients, 75 (65.2%) had decubitus ulcer infections at 115 different sites of the body. As expected, ulcers were generally found at the sacrum, costa and hips. The distribution of decubitus ulcer infections in terms of location are presented in Table 2. The rate of bacteremia in decubitus ulcers was 13.9% (16/115) , and the agents were found to be polymicrobial in the wound cultures of 42 (55.2%) of the patients. The most common accompanying bacteria were acinetobacter, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E.coli.
Among the decubitus ulcers, 49 (42.6%), 60 (52.4%) and 6 (5.2%) were evaluated as stage 4, 3 and 2 decubitus ulcers, respectively.
The microorganisms identified in the decubitus ulcer and blood cultures are presented in Table 3.