Clinical and economic analysis of hospital acquired infections in patients diagnosed with brain tumor in a tertiary hospital.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the relationship between hospital acquired infections and clinical outcomes, duration of stay, and cost per infectious episode in patients diagnosed with brain tumors in our service. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study on patients diagnosed with brain tumors and admitted to the department of neurosurgery in the Cruces Hospital of the University of the Basque Country between January 1st, 2007 and December 31st, 2007. We collected demographics, responsible pathogens, infection location, length of hospitalization, and costs of various medical and surgical procedures performed. RESULTS: We reviewed 139 patients that accumulated 210 hospital visits. We found 34 episodes of hospital acquired infections (16.25% of patients). The most frequent infections were that of the lower respiratory tract, urinary tract, and surgical site. We found that patients with HAIs had a significantly lower final KPS score (sig <0.01), greater mean cost of stay (17097 €, sig<0.01), and longer length of stay (15.45 days, sig<0.01). We did not find a significant difference in mortality. CONCLUSIONS: We found significant association between the presence of HAIs and worse clinical outcomes, higher costs, and longer length of stay. The pathogens responsible and infection locations were similar to existing series in the literature. Although variability in study designs in the literature makes interpretation and comparison of results difficult, measures to prevent these complications.