Evaluation of secondary infections in COVID-19 patients hospitalized in intensive care unit: Retrospective observational study

Abstract

bjective: Patients infected with severe acute respira- tory syndrome-coronavirus-2 may progress with severe clinical symp- toms and patients may be hospitalized in intensive care for a long time. In patients with long-term intensive care hospitalization, secondary in- fections develop as a result of the pathophysiology of the disease and the treatments used. The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence of secondary infections in patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and to identify common pathogen groups. Material and Methods: Four hundred and sixty one patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 who were followed up in the intensive care unit at Afy- onkarahisar Health Sciences University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between 20 March 2020 and 31 May 2021 were included in the study. Demographic data, co-morbidities, clinical features, laboratory data and culture growth data of the patients were recorded retrospectively. Re- sults: Nosocomial secondary infections were detected in 132 (28.6%) of 461 patients. Acinetobacter baumannii 39/53 (73.5%) growth was observed in the majority of the lower respiratory tract sample cultures. There was 28/49 (57.1%) Staphylococcus aureus growth in blood cul- tures, and 21/42 (50%) candida spp. growth in urine cultures. Conclu- sion: In this study, we found that the incidence of infection secondary to COVID-19 pneumonia was high. In addition, it was determined that the secondary infection rate was high in patients with PaO2/FiO2<200.