An observational study of the universal use of octenidine to decrease nosocomial bloodstream infections and MDR organisms.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the effect of universal decolonization with octenidine on the incidence of ICU-acquired bloodstream infections (BSI) and MDR organisms (MDRO).

METHODS

A system-wide change in practice was performed in the ICUs of a university hospital with three campuses (eight medical ICUs and nine surgical ICUs). All ICUs had a general admission screening strategy for MRSA with subsequent isolation in the 12 month baseline period, which was stopped. After a wash-in period of 1 month, decolonization of the nose with octenidine nasal gel and octenidine wash cloths was introduced. The endpoints were ICU-acquired BSI and ICU-acquired MDRO isolates from clinical cultures. Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series was used to assess the effect of intervention.

RESULTS

A total of 29 532 ICU patients (16 677 surgical and 12 855 medical) were included in the study. The baseline incidence density of ICU-acquired BSI was 5.1 per 1000 patient days and the baseline ICU-acquired MRSA rate was 0.97 per 1000 patient days. Whereas no significant effect on either outcome was found in surgical ICUs, we identified a significant effect on ICU-acquired BSI for the intervention in medical ICUs by means of multivariate analysis (incidence rate ratio 0.78; 95% CI 0.65-0.94). In addition, the intervention was also effective in decreasing ICU-acquired MRSA in medical ICUs (incidence rate ratio 0.58; 95% CI 0.41-0.82). No effect on ICU-acquired VRE and Gram-negative MDRO was found.

CONCLUSIONS

System change was successful by decreasing infection rates in medical ICUs and improving the management in all ICUs.