HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED BACTEREMIC URINARY-TRACT INFECTION - EPIDEMIOLOGY AND OUTCOME

Analysis of 221 episodes of hospital-acquired bacteremic urinary tract infection in 4 hospitals of 1 metropolitan area from 1977-1981 revealed an over-all mortality rate of 30.8%. The mortality rate attributed specifically to bacteremic urinary tract infection was 12.7%. Of the 28 patients whose deaths were attributed directly to hospital-acquired bacteremic urinary tract infection 19 were on medical services and all had focal or diffuse CNS disease, malignancy, alcoholic liver disease or cirrhosis, advanced arteriosclerosis with renal failure and/or diabetes mellitus with obliterative peripheral vascular disease. Extrapolation of these data suggests that 3520 deaths in the USA each year are directly caused by hospital-acquired bacteremic urinary tract infection, but that these deaths may be limited virtually to high risk patients with poor prognoses from underlying diseases.