Costs and resource utilization patterns in surgical site infections: a pre-COVID-19 perspective from France, Germany, Spain, and the UK.

BACKGROUND: Surgical site infections (SSIs), mainly caused by Staphylococcus aureus, pose a significant economic burden in Europe, leading to increased hospitalization duration, mortality, and treatment costs, particularly with drug-resistant strains such as meticillin-resistant S. aureus. AIM: To conduct a case-control study on the economic impact of S. aureus SSI in adult surgical patients across high-volume centres in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK, aiming to assess the overall and procedure-specific burden across Europe. METHODS: The SALT study is a multinational, retrospective cohort study with a nested case-control analysis focused on S. aureus SSI in Europe. The study included participants from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK who underwent invasive surgery in 2016 and employed a micro-costing approach to evaluate health economic factors, matching S. aureus SSI cases with controls. FINDINGS: In 2016, among 178,904 surgical patients in five European countries, 764 developed S. aureus SSI. Matching 744 cases to controls, the study revealed that S. aureus SSI cases incurred higher immediate hospitalization costs (€8,810), compared to controls (€6,032). Additionally, S. aureus SSI cases exhibited increased costs for readmissions within the first year post surgery (€7,961.6 versus €5,298.6), with significant differences observed. Factors associated with increased surgery-related costs included the cost of hospitalization immediately after surgery, first intensive care unit (ICU) admission within 12 months, and hospital readmission within 12 months, as identified through multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION: The higher rates of hospitalization, ICU admissions, and readmissions among S. aureus SSI cases highlight the severity of these infections and their impact on healthcare costs, emphasizing the potential benefits of evidence-based infection control measures and improved patient care to mitigate the economic burden.

A contemporary case series of Fournier's gangrene at a Swiss tertiary care center-can scoring systems accurately predict mortality and morbidity?

Background: Fournier's gangrene (FG) is a life-threatening infection of the genital, perineal, and perianal regions with a morbidity range between 3 and 67%. Our aim is to report our experience in treatment of FG and to assess whether three different scoring systems can accurately predict mortality and morbidity in FG patients. Methods: All patients that were treated for FG at the Department of Urology of the University Hospital Basel between June 2012 and March 2017 were included and assessed retrospectively by chart review. Furthermore, we calculated Fournier's Gangrene Severity Index (FGSI), the Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis (LRINEC), and the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in every patient and assessed whether those scores correlate with the patients' morbidity and mortality. Results: Twenty patients were included, with a median (IQR) age of 66 (46-73) years. Fifteen of twenty (75%) patients required treatment on an intensive care unit, and three died (mortality rate: 15%). The mean FGSI, LRINEC, and NLR scores were 13.0, 9.3, and 45.3 for non-survivors and 7.7, 6.5, and 26 for survivors, respectively. None of the risk scores correlated significantly with mortality; however, all three significantly correlated with infection- and surgically-induced morbidity. Conclusions: In our series, Fournier's gangrene was associated with a mortality rate of 15% despite maximum multidisciplinary therapy at a specialized center. All risk scores were able to predict the morbidity of the disease in terms of local extent and the required surgical measures.

Candidemia in the intensive care unit: analysis of direct treatment costs and clinical outcome in patients treated with echinocandins or fluconazole.

Direct treatment costs caused by candidemia in German intensive care unit (ICU) patients are currently unknown. We analyzed treatment costs and the impact of antifungal drug choice. Comprehensive data of patients who had at least one episode of candidemia while staying in the ICU between 01/2005 and 12/2010 were documented in a database using the technology of the Cologne Cohort of Neutropenic Patients (CoCoNut). A detailed analysis of all disease-associated treatment costs was performed. Patients treated with echinocandins (i.e., anidulafungin, caspofungin, micafungin) or fluconazole were analyzed separately and compared. Forty-one and 64 patients received echinocandins and fluconazole, respectively. The mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV score was 114 (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 106-122) vs. 95 (95 % CI: 90-101, p = <0.001). Twenty-three (56 %) and 33 (52 %, p = 0.448) patients survived hospitalization, while 17 (41 %) and 22 (34 %, p = 0.574) survived one year after diagnosis. In the echinocandin and fluconazole groups, the mean costs per patient of ICU treatment were 20,338 (95 % CI: 12,893-27,883) vs. 11,932 (95 % CI: 8,016-15,849, p = 0.110), and the total direct treatment costs per patient were 37,995 (95 % CI: 26,614-49,376) vs. 22,305 (95 % CI: 16,817-27,793, p = 0.012), resulting in daily costs per patient of 1,158 (95 % CI: 1,036-1,280) vs. 927 (95 % CI: 828-1,026, p = 0.001). Our health economic analysis shows the high treatment costs of patients with candidemia in the ICU. Sicker patients had a prolonged hospitalization and were more likely to receive echinocandins, leading to higher treatment costs. Outcomes were comparable to those achieved in less sick patients with fluconazole.

Infrared thermography of the pig thorax: an assessment of selected regions of interest by computed tomographical and anatomical parameters.

Current methods of diagnosis of respiratory diseases in swine are invasive, time-consuming and expensive. Infrared thermography (IRT) of the thorax might provide a new method of high specificity to select swine affected with lung alterations for further diagnostics. In this study, layer thickness of different tissues was determined in frozen thorax slices (FTS) by computed tomography (CT) and then related to skin temperatures measured by IRT in healthy pigs. The aim was to determine appropriate regions of interest (ROI) for evaluation of IRT images. Organ layer thicknesses measured in CT images correspond to those measured in FTS. Temperature differences between lung ROIs and abdomen ROIs were positively correlated with lung layer thickness at certain localizations, and negatively correlated with the thickness of the thorax wall and of inner organ layers. Reference values of differences between skin temperatures were established for two ROIs on the thorax with potential practical use for lung health status determination. Respective ROIs were located on vertical lines crossing the 7th (right) and the 10th (left) thoracic vertebrae. The presence of ribs affected skin temperature significantly.

Formation of deposits on the surfaces of superheaters and economisers of MSW incinerator plants.

Mineralogical and chemical investigations of deposits from superheaters and economisers from a MSWI plant in Mannheim, Germany, lead to a classification system which provides information about the most critical parameters leading to fouling and corrosion. With the help of this classification system parameters like the geometry of boilers and the waste input can be changed in order to prolong run times between revisions and enhance energy efficiency of MSWI plants.