Profile of septic work up among patients admitted into the intensive care unit in University of Abuja teaching hospital Gwagwalada, Abuja

Abstract

Background: Several infectious agents are responsible for sepsis in all age groups presenting with fever which can have devastating consequences if not adequately treated. Sepsis may arise from bacteria, fungi and viral origin but are localized in particular organ or system with systemic affectation. Febrile illness is a leading reason for admission to the intensive care unit of hospitals in the tropics and these patients comes mostly from inpatients rather than from outpatients. Diagnostic apparatus needed for sepsis work up are usually not available in most cases and the data regarding septic work up are very scanty. Therefore, this research set out to determine the pattern of isolates from septic work-up among patients admitted to the intensive care unit in Abuja.
Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Sixty-four consecutive patients admitted to the intensive care unit with symptoms such as fever were involved in the study in a view to determine the septic state of the patients. Samples were collected. Blood culturing was performed using the BACTEC 9050® system and biochemical analytical profile index were used for identification and confirmation of bacterial isolates.
Results: The mean age of the patients admitted to ICU was 40.9±3.2 with the highest proportion within the age range of 31-40 years accounting for 31.7% of the patients enrolled and the lowest proportion being 10-20 years group accounting for 5.0%.Out of the 64 patients investigated in the ICU 60 patients had clinical and positive cultures with an overall positive and negative infection rate of 93.8% and 6.3% respectively. From the positive cultures yields 86.7% were bacteremia and 13.3% were fungaemia. Multiple infections were observed among the male patients, Multi-drug resistance bacteria were observed among Klebsiella pneumonia, E. coli and P. aeroginosa isolates.
Conclusion: Bacterial and fungal isolates were found in this study but increased rate of polymicrobial isolation and nosocomial infections calls for concern.

Key words: Profile of infectious agents, sepsis, fever, septic work up, Abuja