Evaluation of geriatric infections in past six years

Abstract

Background: The number of geriatric patients and their mean age are increasing as life expectancy increases. Infections are one of the most important reasons for hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality among geriatric patients. Methods & Materials: The present study, retrospectively evaluated demographic characteristics, underlying diseases, and distribution of infections in patients aged 65 years who were hospitalized for treatment between January–1, 2010 and December–31, 2015, at the infectious diseases and clinical microbiology department. Results: Overall, 853 geriatric patients were included in this study, with 435 (51%) woman and 418 (49%) men, the mean age was 76.8 ± 7.3 years, and 86.2% of patients had at least one comorbid chronic disease. Hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus were most common comorbidities, and most common reasons for hospitalization included pneumonia (37.9%), urinary tract infection (22.9%) and cellulitis (7.7%). On evaluation of disease trends over years, rates of urosepsis, brucellosis, and Crimean_ Congo hemorrhagic fever were found decreased, tularemia cases were no longer observed, whereas fever of unknown etiology rates had increased. Moreover, beta-lactam antibiotics (88.2%), quinolones (21.1%) and macrolides (19.6%) were most frequent antibiotics used for treatment. The average length of hospital stay was 6.8 ± 5.1 days. Overall, 17 (2%) patients died during the study, 62 (7.3%) were transferred to other clinics, 53 patients (6.2%) were transferred to intensive care units, 51 (6%) were discharged with their current medical status, 670 (78.5%) were discharged with full recovery. Nursing home stay and being transferred from intensive care units were independent risk factors for mortality (p = 0.001). Conclusion: According to our results, age, presence of comorbidities, and mortality among patients transferred from intensive care units were high, and thus, this group of special patients should be more closely monitored. Taken together, it will be useful for healthcare facilities to calculate the proportion of their elderly patient population, and establish low-cost palliative care units for management of elderly patients with critical diseases. Concomitant chronic diseases further complicate geriatric cases, and thus, patient management becomes more challenging. Adequate knowledge regarding management of chronic diseases in such patients will ease follow-up of geriatric patients.