Multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter species: a seven-year experience from a tertiary care center in Lebanon

Background: (MDR-Ab) infections in the ICU increased sharply in 2007 by around 120%, and these infections have continued to cause a serious problem to this day. Methods: We conducted a seven-year prospective cohort study between 2007 and 2014 in the ICU. Early in the epidemic, a case-control study was performed that included MDR-Ab cases diagnosed between 2007 and 2008 and uninfected controls admitted to the ICU during the same time. Results: The total number of patients with MDR-Ab infections diagnosed between 2007 and 2014 was 128. There were also 99 patients with MDR-Ab colonization without evidence of active infection between 2011 and 2014. The incidence of MDR-Ab transmission was 315.4 cases/1000 ICU patient-days. The majority of infections were considered hospital-acquired (84%) and most consisted of respiratory infections (53.1%). The mortality rate of patients with MDR-Ab ranged from 52% to 66%. Conclusion: MDR-Ab infections mostly consisted of ventilator-associated pneumonia and were associated with a very high mortality rate. Infection control measures should be reinforced to control the transmission of these organisms in the ICU.