ABSTRACT

Our study, staff education and renewal of TPN has shown a positive effect to decrease candidemi incidence, but its effectivity was limited for a short period. Implementation of “candida score” in the ICUs was found to be more effective to decrease candidemia incidence.

A total of 267 episodes of candidemia were identified in the study period. The number of candidemia was significantly decreased in 2007 after staff education and renewal of the TPN (p: 0,035). In 2008, a statistically significant increase was detected (p: 0.020). In 2009, “Candida score” was introduced in the ICUs to detect high-risk patients and to decide early antifungal therapy. And than candidemia incidence was decresed significantly year by year

All candidemia episodes during 2006 - 2012 were selected from infection control committee records analyzed retrospectively. Mainly two interventions were done to decrease candidemia incidence: staff education and renewal of TPN with an automatized system in 2007, and application of “candida score” in high-risk patients in the ICUs to guide empirical antifungal treatment in 2009. The incidence of candidemia were compared before and after interventions. For the statistical analysis, percentages of candidemia through seven years were assessed by Cochrane Armitage test of linear trend.

Candidemia remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality and can be prevented with the application of some interventions. We aimed to analyze the effect of staff education, renewing the TPN unit and establishing candida score in the high-risk patients in ICU on candidemia epidemiology