Nosocomial Infections in Iranian Pediatric Patients With Burn Injuries: A Review

Abstract

Context: Nosocomial infections (NIs) are the most common life-threatening complications and leading cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients with burn injuries. It is estimated that annually two million infections, 90000 deaths, and 4.5 billion USD in excess healthcare costs are imposed by NIs. Herein, we reviewed the articles related to NIs in Iranian pediatric patients with burn injuries. Evidence Acquisition: A review of epidemiologic studies on NI in pediatric patients with burn injuries in Iran was performed by searching studies indexed in PubMed, Google scholar, Iranmedex, Magiran, SID databases, published in English language in 2014. Keywords for searching included “Nosocomial Infections”, “Hospital- acquired infection”, “Healthcare- associated infections”, “burn”, “children”, “pediatric”, and “Iran”. All articles related to NIs in pediatric patients with burn injuries or about general population with burn injuries, which included pediatric population up to the age 18 years in Iran, were included. Articles out of the definition for age group or lack of significant data, outpatients, and patients selected for reconstructive surgeries were excluded. Results: Of 43 reviewed articles, nine eligible articles were selected. The male to female ratio was 1.6:1. The age ranged from birth to 18 years with the mean of 3.4 years. Overall incidence of NIs was 20.94%. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (30.39%), Klebsiella pneumonia (17.54%), Acinetobacter (17.47%), and Staphylococcus aureus (14.98%) were the most common prominent isolates with high antibiotic resistance isolated from the cultures of different sites of infections including burn wound. Vancomycin was highly specific antibiotic against Gram-positive bacteria isolates. All spices of Acinetobacter were multidrug resistant. The mean of mortality rate was 8.75%. Conclusions: In spite of higher incidence of NIs in children with burn injuries, there are no well-described benchmark rates in this population. Further epidemiologic studies to identify knowledge gap regarding NIs in pediatric patients with burn in Iran is recommended.