Necrotizing fasciitis in three university hospitals in Korea: a change in causative microorganisms and risk factors of mortality during the last decade.

Background: Necrotizing fasciitis is a life-threatening infectious disease with rapidly progressive involvement of the affected site. Because of the high mortality rate of this disease, early diagnosis, surgical exploration, and administration of appropriate antibiotics are necessary. The present study aimed to further review the changes in the clinical and microbiological characteristics of necrotizing fasciitis using patients' medical records from consecutive databases of 3 hospitals in Korea.

Risk factors for hospital-acquired pneumonia caused by carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in critically ill patients: a multicenter study in Korea.

We performed a case-control study to identify risk factors of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CRGNB) as an increasing cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP). The study included critically ill adult patients with HAP whose microbial etiology was identified at eight tertiary centers in Korea between June 2008 and December 2009. Eighty two patients with 86 isolates of CRGNB (62 Acinetobacter baumannii, 14 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 10 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia) were included in the case group, and 122 patients with carbapenem-susceptible Gram-negative bacteria were included in the control group.