Health care-associated infections in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (COVIAAS)

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread fast globally comprising a great variety of clinical presentations. It was reported that 15% of patients required admission to intensive care units (ICU). Previous epidemiological studies have reported higher risk of healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) in those patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (iMV) due to COVID-19. Aim: To analyze the incidence of HCAI in adults under iMV admitted to ICU of Anchorena San Martín Clinic during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Retrospective cohort study, the analysis of normality was carried out using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The multiple regression analysis was performed automatically, based on backward elimination of the variables (backward selection). For the comparison between the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 groups, the T test or Wilcoxon test was used, as appropriate; and the c2 or Fisher's exact test. All cumulative incidence function estimates were made with the cmprsk package. Results: 252 patients were included, 40 patients developed HCAI (accumulated incidence was 15.9%), counting for 60 total HCAI events. Age (OR 0.96), number of central venous access devices (CVAD) (OR 2.01), COVID-19 (OR 2.96) and prone positioning (OR 2.78) were associated with HCAI. HCAI was associated with more days of iMV and ICU stay. The accumulated incidence of HCAI in non-COVID-19 patients was lower than in COVID-19 patients. iMV days and mortality were higher in COVID-19.  29.6% of COVID-19 patients developed HCAIs vs 7.1% of non-COVID-19 ones. Conclusion: We describe the incidence of HCAI. Age, COVID-19, CVAD, prone positioning and ICU stay were associated with higher probability of HCAIs.