Incidence and Risk Factors for Developing Infections in Patients Colonized by Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella Pneumoniae

The worldwide increase in the rate of infections due to multidrug-resistant bacteria is considered a major public health problem.

Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-KP) are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Mortality of up to 70% and, in survivors, a readmission rate of up to 72% within 90 days of discharge have been reported.

CR-KP infection is usually preceded by colonization. However, the incidence rate and risk factors for CR-KP infections among carriers is poorly understood.

Multiple studies have focused in risk factors to develop infections among carriers.

In order to identify patients at low risk of CR-KP bloodstream infections, Gianella et at developed a predictive score to stratify patients according to their risk for acquisition of CR-KP infections.

However, further studies are needed to validate these results, particularly in high-risk patients, such as haematological patients, solid organ trasplant recipients and patients admitted in ICU.

Italian Hospital is an acute tertiary care university teaching hospital with more than 45,000 admission-years, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a great proportion of haematological and solid organ transplant recipients, and patients with substantial comorbidities and immunosuppression.

With the aim of developing an adequate risk assessment for CR-KP infections among CR-KP carriers, we performed a retrospective cohort analysis, in a tertiary teaching hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The main purpose of our study is to describe the incidence of CR-KP infections among CRKP colonized patients, to demonstrate the risk factors for acquisition of CR-KP infections and to develop a clinical predictive score that could stratify patients to guide therapeutic decisions in CR-KP carriers, and avoid overuse of broad-spectrum therapy.