Epidemiological aspects of the occurrence of Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci

Abstract

This descriptive study was conducted in a public hospital from May 2005 to October 2007, with the purpose to determine the epidemiological aspects that involve vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and describe the evolution of patients. |The data was obtained from registers on patient records and then processed in SPSS. Frequency distribution and measures of central tendency were used. A total 122 patients participated of the study, the majority were males with an average age of 43 years (SD= 18.8), and 16.3% developed VRE infection. Vancomycin has been the most used antibiotic (62,3%), 97.5% used invasive procedures, 45.0% were dependent on intensive care nursing, 77.9% had at least one open wound and 50.8% progressed to death. The data suggests that recommendations for bacterial resistance control should be encouraged to reduce mortality, morbidity, hospital costs and thus provide better quality care to patients.