Hospital infections in neonatal intensive care units

Sick newborn babies in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) are at increased risk for hospital-acquired infections (HI). The aim of our study was to determine the incidence and localization of neonatal hospital infections in NICU. A prospective, six-month study was carried out in a NICU. All patients hospitalized in NICU longer then 48 hours were examined according to their basic descriptive-epidemiological characteristics and the incidence of all hospital-acquired infections (diagnosed using CDC criteria) were accounted for. The incidence of patients with HI was 46.1% while the incidence of HI was 57.2%. On the basis of patients' records in the NICU, the incidence of HI was 43.9 per 1000 patient-hospital days. Patients with HI were hospitalized significantly longer in NICU than patients without HI (t=9.2 DF=267 p