Acquired bloodstream infection in the intensive care unit: incidence and attributable mortality.

Introduction: To estimate the incidence of intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired bloodstream infection (BSI) and its independent effect on hospital mortality.

Methods: We retrospectively studied acquisition of BSI during admissions of >72 hours to adult ICUs from two university-affiliated hospitals. We obtained demographics, illness severity and co-morbidity data from ICU databases and microbiological diagnoses from departmental electronic records.