Characteristics and prognosis factors of critically ill patients with community acquired infections

Introduction: Patients with community-acquired infections require assistance in intensive care units. Objective: To identify characteristics and prognostic factors of critically ill patients with community-acquired infections. Methods: A cohort study was carried out in 160 patients admitted to the intensive care unit for more than 48 hours. Variables age, sex, APACHE II index, SOFA scale, origin of the patients, stage of sepsis, comorbidity, location of the infection and therapeutic procedures were defined. Results: 58.1% of the patients were women. The median age in deceased patients was 52.5 years and 39.9 years in living (p= 0.015). The mean APACHE II in deceased patients was 22.2 points (95% CI; 18.1-26.2) (p= 0.000). The frequency of immunosuppression, neutropenia and neoplasms (p< 0.05) showed differences between living and deceased; and pneumonia as location (46.7% vs. 17.9; p= 0.007). Intra-abdominal infection (40.0%), pneumonia (20.6%) and urinary tract infection (8.8%) represented the main locations of community acquired infections. In the binary logistic regression model, APACHE II (OR= 5.96; 95% CI: 1.02-34.8) and SOFA (OR= 5.68; 95% CI: 1.4-21.7) were prognostic factors. Conclusions: The patients are characterized by being in their fourth decade, being female, having diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression or neoplasms and locations such as intra-abdominal infection and pneumonia mainly. APACHE II and SOFA are the prognostic factors for death.