Pseudomonas in the sinks in an intensive care unit: relation to patients.
Year: 1984
Type: article
Abstract: Sink drains in a medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU) were cultured during six consecutive weeks as part of a seven month prospective study of acquisition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by ICU patients. Isolates were typed serologically and by aminoglycoside and chlorhexidine susceptibility patterns. All 11 sinks contained multiple strains of P aeruginosa; some strains persisted for weeks while others were isolated once. Of the sink isolates 56% had high level resistance to gentamicin and tobramycin whereas none of the strains found in patients. In sink isolates chlorhexidine resistance correlated with aminoglycoside resistance and with the presence of a chlorhexidine dispenser at a sink. The sequence of recovery of phenotypically similar isolates suggested that sinks were the source of at most two acquisitions of P aeruginosa by patients during the six weeks. Our study confirms that sinks may be reservoirs for large numbers of highly resistant P aeruginosa but are rarely the source of organisms colonising patients in our ICU.
Source: Journal of Clinical Pathology
DOI: 10.1136/jcp.37.4.424
Authors: M H Levin, B Olson, C Nathan, S A Kabins, R A Weinstein
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2129135048