[Hospital bacteremia at the "Instituto do Coração do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP": a four-year retrospective study]. / Bacteremias hospitalares no Instituto do Coração do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP: estudo retrospectivo de quatro anos consecutivos.

We conducted a retrospective study to establish mortality rates and prevalence of nosocomial bacteremias at our institute. We found 1.21 nosocomial bacteremias per 100 hospital discharges with an overall Mortality rate of 29.5%. Primary bacteremias increased during the four-year-study-period from 31 to 41%. Staphylococcus, both coagulase-positive and coagulase-negative, was the bacteria most frequently isolated. An abrupt increase in the isolation of P.aeruginosa occurred in 1992. We concluded that a blood-culture surveillance program is required for determining an endemic rate.