Penetration of echinocandins into wound secretion of critically ill patients.

PURPOSE: Wound infections caused by Candida are life-threatening and difficult to treat. Echinocandins are highly effective against Candida species and recommended for treatment of invasive candidiasis. As penetration of echinocandins into wounds is largely unknown, we measured the concentrations of the echinocandins anidulafungin (AFG), micafungin (MFG), and caspofungin (CAS) in wound secretion (WS) and in plasma of critically ill patients. METHODS: We included critically ill adults with an indwelling wound drainage or undergoing vacuum-assisted closure therapy, who were treated with an echinocandin for suspected or proven invasive fungal infection. Concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography with UV (AFG and MFG) or tandem mass spectrometry detection (CAS). RESULTS: Twenty-one patients were enrolled. From eight patients, serial WS samples and simultaneous plasma samples were obtained within a dosage interval. AFG concentrations in WS amounted to < 0.025-2.25 mg/L, MFG concentrations were 0.025-2.53 mg/L, and CAS achieved concentrations of 0.18-4.04 mg/L. Concentrations in WS were significantly lower than the simultaneous plasma concentrations and below the MIC values of some relevant pathogens. CONCLUSION: Echinocandin penetration into WS displays a high inter-individual variability. In WS of some of the patients, concentrations may be sub-therapeutic. However, the relevance of sub-therapeutic concentrations is unknown as no correlation has been established between concentration data and clinical outcome. Nevertheless, in the absence of clinical outcome studies, our data do not support the use of echinocandins at standard doses for the treatment of fungal wound infections, but underline the pivotal role of surgical debridement.

Knowledge, risk perception and attitudes toward vaccination among Austrian health care workers: A cross-sectional study.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the vaccination coverage of Austrian health care workers (HCWs), their knowledge concerning the current guideline on vaccination for HCWs and their attitudes toward vaccination. A cross-sectional survey was performed by distributing 200 questionnaires among the nursing staff of several medical wards and intensive care units of the Vienna General Hospital. 116 questionnaires were returned for analysis with 77.4% female and 22.6% male participants. While certain vaccines like hepatitis B, tetanus and polio had high vaccination rates of up to 94% and good knowledge concerning the vaccination status, other vaccines like measles (59.8%), mumps (60.7%), rubella (70.5%), influenza (42.1%) or pertussis (58.2%) showed much lower coverage. The main sources of information were nursing school (59.1%), secondary school (46.1%), parents (45.2%) and media in general (45.2%). Only 21.9% of HCWs claimed to know the current guideline on vaccination. Those who knew the guideline were significantly more likely to consider certain vaccines like measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, polio and varicella as recommended (p ≤ 0.04). The most important reasons for receiving vaccination were self-protection (87.5%), prevention of epidemics (54.5%), protection of others (55.4%) and of patients (42.9%). Fear of side effects (67.2%), negative experiences with vaccines (22.4%), the additional doctor's appointment (20.7%) and considering vaccines as an invention by the pharmaceutical industry (19%) were hindering factors for vaccination of HCWs. Considering the essential role of HCWs in preventing diseases, this study noted a remarkable lack of information on vaccination in this profession.

Incidence and long-term outcome of sepsis on general wards and in an ICU at the General Hospital of Vienna: an observational cohort study.

Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in intensive care units (ICUs) and has enormous relevance in health economics. There is growing evidence, however, that a significant percentage of patients with sepsis are not treated in an ICU. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology and short- and long-term mortality of sepsis according to patients' location on general wards or in an ICU over a period of a year. We retrospectively collected data on patients with sepsis admitted to the General Hospital of Vienna during a 12-month period. We used world health organization (WHO) ICD-10 classification as the selection criterion and analyzed demographic data, length of stay, and 28-day, hospital, and 3-year mortality on general wards and in the ICU. A total of 68,305 inpatient admission episodes between January 1 and December 31, 2007 were screened for sepsis. Using ICD-10 codes we identified 139 patients with sepsis, giving a cumulative hospital incidence of 2 cases/1,000 admissions; 32 % of these patients needed ICU treatment. The overall 28-day mortality rate was 29.5 %, increasing to 55.4 % 3 years after hospital discharge. On general wards the 28-day mortality rate was 12.6 %, increasing to 42.1 % 3 years after discharge; the respective rates for the ICU were 65.9 and 84.1 %. Sepsis is a disease of predominantly elderly patients. The majority of sepsis occurred on general wards and about 30 % in the ICU. Considerable number of patients with sepsis on general wards died after hospital discharge, thus the often used 28-day in-hospital mortality rate may fail to capture the true impact of sepsis on subsequent outcome.