Disclosure: The authors declared no conflict of interest
Hasan OZTIN1,Mete
Erdemir2, İlyas OZTURK 3,
1İzmir Atatürk Training and Research Hospital,
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics
2SBU Erzurum
Region Education and Research Hospital, Clinic of Internal Medicine
3Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University School of
Medicine Nephrology Departmentent
Abstract
Introduction: Decubitus ulcers are a significant cause of morbidity and
mortality, and a source of considerable expense in health expenditures.
Bacteremia is a frequently seen complication of decubitus ulcers,
although its incidence has yet to be well defined, and there are scarce
studies on the subject. The aim in the present study is to assess the
frequency of bacteremia of decubitus ulcer origin as an indicator in
decisions to start systemic antibiotics in patients with decubitus
ulcers.
Material and metods: Included in the study were all patients over the
age of 18 years receiving palliative care in hospital, and with a
decubitus ulcer. Decubitus wound samples of the patients were taken
within the first 24 hours of admission to the hospital. All decubitus
wounds were washed with sterile saline and a sample was taken using a
sterile cotton swab from the deepest and the most solid part of the
wounds. we included 76 patients whose 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 76 patients, 75 (65.2%) had decubitus ulcer infections at 115
different sites of the body.
Result: 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.
Conclusion: The causative agent of decubitus infections was found to be
the agent causing bacteremia in 13.9% of the patients with decubitus
ulcers in the present study. The agent growing in the wound culture was
rarely found to be the causative agent of bacteremia when deciding
whether to treat decubitus ulcer infections.