EFFECT of daily antiseptic bathing with octenidine on ICU-acquired bacteremia and ICU-acquired multidrug-resistant organisms: a multicenter, cluster-randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study.

Purpose: Antiseptic bathing has garnered attention in an effort to reduce hospital-acquired infections. Previous studies have shown the efficacy of antiseptic bathing in high-risk environments, such as intensive care units (ICUs), using chlorhexidine. In this study we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of octenidine as a potential alternative due to its established popularity and widespread use in Europe.

Presence of hypervirulence-associated determinants in Klebsiella pneumoniae from hospitalised patients in Germany.

Background: Klebsiella (K.) pneumoniae is a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacterium and a common coloniser of animals and humans. Today, K.

Improving leadership skills of infection prevention and control teams by psychological empowerment: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial (IP-POWER).

Introduction: Infection prevention and control (IPC) teams are routinely confronted with intense emotions in their daily work, as they are involved in many change processes with front-line medical staff, for example, when promoting compliance with basic IPC measures. In addition, they are confronted with challenges due to their role as intermediaries. Based on former research, this study aims to empower IPC teams to promote clinicians' compliance through interventions focusing on the IPC teams' leadership skills.

Rectal colonization is predictive for surgical site infections with multidrug-resistant bacteria in abdominal surgery.

Purpose: Superficial surgical site infections (SSI) are a common complication after abdominal surgery. Additionally, multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) have shown an increasing spread in recent years with a growing importance for health care. As there is varying evidence on the importance of MDRO in different surgical fields and countries as causative agents of SSI, we report our findings of MDRO-caused SSI.

Tailoring implementation interventions of different order in infection prevention and control: A cascadic logic model (IPC-CASCADE).

Implementation interventions in infection prevention and control (IPC) differ by recipients. The two target groups are healthcare workers directly involved in patient care ("frontline") and IPC professionals as proxy agents, that is, implementation support practitioners. While both types of implementation interventions aim to promote compliance with clinical interventions to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAI), their tailoring may be vastly different, for example, due to different behavioural outcomes.

Compliance assessment regarding the PVC management on normal wards of a university hospital.

Objective: The risk of peripheral venous catheter (PVC) infections in inpatients is often underestimated, even if it is lower than that for central venous catheters. Guidelines for the prevention of PVC-associated infections describe the evidence-based management of PVCs. The aims of this study were the development of standardized methods for compliance assessment regarding PVC management and the evaluation of self-reported knowledge and implementations among healthcare providers regarding PVC care.

ICU infection surveillance can be based on electronic routine data: results of a case study.

Background: The surveillance of hospital-acquired infections in Germany is usually conducted via manual chart review; this, however, proves resource intensive and is prone to a certain degree of subjectivity. Documentation based on electronic routine data may present an alternative to manual methods. We compared the data derived via manual chart review to that which was derived from electronic routine data.

[Resource conservation from the perspective of infection prevention].

Background: Procedures to prevent surgical site infections require a high input of human, technical and natural resources. This paper explores ways to optimize the use of resources in caring for patients who undergo a surgical procedure without compromising patient safety.

Methods: Review of the contribution of selected procedures for infection prevention in surgical patients considering current evidence and recommendations by comparing current guidelines and results of clinical trials.

Best practice approaches to outpatient management of people living with Parkinson's disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) is rising, rendering it one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. Treatment and monitoring of patients require regular specialized in- and outpatient care. Patients with PD are more likely to have a complicated disease course if they become infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Long-Term, Low-Frequency Cluster of a German-Imipenemase-1-Producing Enterobacter hormaechei ssp. steigerwaltii ST89 in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Germany.

Enterobacter cloacae complex is a common cause of hospital outbreaks. A retrospective and prospective molecular analysis of carbapenem-resistant clinical isolates in a tertiary care center demonstrated an outbreak of a German-imipenemase-1 (GIM-1) metallo-beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacter hormaechei ssp. steigerwaltii affecting 23 patients between 2009 and 2016.

Species Diversity of Environmental GIM-1-Producing Bacteria Collected during a Long-Term Outbreak.

Unlabelled: Reports of outbreaks concerning carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative bacteria in which the main source of transmission is the hospital environment are increasing. This study describes the results of environmental sampling in a protracted polyspecies metallo-beta-lactamase GIM-1 outbreak driven by plasmids and bacterial clones of Enterobacter cloacae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a tertiary care center. Environmental sampling targeting wet locations (especially sinks) was carried out on a surgical intensive care unit and on a medical ward on several occasions in 2012 and 2013.

Detection and termination of an extended low-frequency hospital outbreak of GIM-1-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa ST111 in Germany.

Background: Metallo-β-lactamase German imipenemase-1 (GIM-1)-mediated carbapenem resistance is emerging in Germany but has not spread beyond a very localized region. The aim of this study was to describe the first outbreak of an extensively drug-resistant GIM-1-carrying Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain affecting 29 patients in a tertiary care hospital from 2002-2013.

Methods: The outbreak was studied retrospectively and prospectively by a combination of molecular methods (carbapenemase polymerase chain reaction [PCR]), genotyping (DiversiLab, pulsed field gel electrophoresis and multi-locus sequence typing, bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France), descriptive epidemiology, and extensive environmental investigations using swabs with liquid transport medium, blaGIM-1 PCR, directly from the medium and culture.

International multicenter evaluation of the DiversiLab bacterial typing system for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp.

Successful multidrug-resistant clones are increasing in prevalence globally, which makes the ability to identify these clones urgent. However, adequate, easy-to-perform, and reproducible typing methods are lacking. We investigated whether DiversiLab (DL), an automated repetitive-sequence-based PCR bacterial typing system (bioMérieux), is suitable for comparing isolates analyzed at different geographic centers.

Quantitative bedside testing of troponin T: is it equal to laboratory testing? The Cardiac Reader Troponin T (CARE T) study.

The progressive evolution of cardiac marker testing in patients with acute coronary syndromes has extended their role into risk stratification and guidance of therapeutic regimen. To provide utilization of cardiac markers around the clock and facilitate the diagnostic work-up of patients with acute chest pain in the emergency room, a point-of-care system for quantitative troponin T and myoglobin testing in whole blood samples was developed. Aim of this multicenter study was to evaluate bedside quantitative determination of myoglobin and troponin T in chest pain patients in a clinical routine setting.

Multicenter evaluation of a fully mechanized soluble transferrin receptor assay on the Hitachi and cobas integra analyzers. the determination of reference ranges.

Soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) is reported to be a reliable marker for the diagnosis of iron deficiency, especially when iron metabolism is influenced by inflammatory disorders such as infection, chronic inflammation and cancer-related anemia. In the present multicenter study the analytical performance of a recently introduced, latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay for the determination of soluble transferrin receptor (Tina quant [a] sTfR, Roche Diagnostics) on different fully mechanized analyzers such as Hitachi 917 and 911, and Cobas Integra 400 and 700 was evaluated. Within-run and between-run imprecision showed good results (CV<5% and <7%, respectively).