[Characteristics of bloodstream infections in adult patients of two third level centers of Córdoba, Argentina.]

Background: Bloodstream infections (BI) are associated with high morbidity and mortality.

Objective: To determine epidemiological, microbiological and clinical features of community (CA-BI) and nosocomial bloodstream infections (N-BI).

Methods: Bacteremia and fungemia events were retrospectively analyzed in two third-level hospitals between April 2009 and August 2013.

Results: We identified 1150 events of bloodstream infections, 53.2% were CA-BI. Gram negative microorganisms were isolated in 61%. The most frequent pathogens were Escherichia coli in CA-BI and Klebsiella pneumoniae in N-BI. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequent gram positive organism. The main comorbidities were renal disease (39%) and malignancy (38%). There were 26.8% of primary bloodstream infections, and the main infection foci included respiratory (17.04%) and urinary tract (16.86%). A high percentage of gram-negative bacteria of CA-BI and N-BI were resistance to ampicillin sulbactam (40.2% and 57.5%), cephalothin (36.7% and 46.8%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole 32.8% vs 35.5%) and ciprofloxacin (24.6% and 35.3%). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were more frequently into ITS-IH (31.4% vs 11.8%, p = 0.007). Conclusions: Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of CA-BI and N-BI were similar to those reported by other Latin-American studies. We observed some differences in antimicrobial resistance profiles. We emphasize the importance of local epidemiological surveillance to choose appropriate empirical treatments.

Conclusions: Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of CA-BI and N-BI were similar to those reported by other Latin-American studies. We observed some differences in antimicrobial resistance profiles. We emphasize the importance of local epidemiological surveillance to choose appropriate empirical treatments.