[The costs of hospital infections in a group of patients in a tertiary-care hospital].

Objective: To know the cost generated by nosocomial infections, to establish the proportion of the total hospital budget used in extra-days of stay, drugs, laboratory and others items used for the treatment.

Methods: We studied 131 nosocomial infections in 82 patients attended in hospital's departments from June to August 1995. We evaluated days of stay, type of infection, episodes per patient, drugs, laboratory, and others items used in the treatment of nosocomial infections.