The sink as a correctable source of extended-spectrum β-lactamase contamination for patients in the intensive care unit

I Wolf; P W M Bergervoet; F W Sebens; H L A van den Oever; P H M Savelkoul; W C van der Zwet

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2014.02.013

The sink as a correctable source of extended-spectrum β-lactamase contamination for patients in the intensive care unit

J Hosp Infect. 2014 Jun;87(2):126-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2014.02.013. Epub 2014 Apr 18.

Authors

I Wolf¹, P W M Bergervoet², F W Sebens², H L A van den Oever³, P H M Savelkoul⁴, W C van der Zwet²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Deventer Ziekenhuis, The Netherlands. Electronic address: i.wolf@dz.nl.
² Laboratory for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Deventer Ziekenhuis, The Netherlands.
³ Intensive Care Unit, Deventer Ziekenhuis, Deventer, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Medical Microbiology & Infection Control, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PMID: 24831607
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2014.02.013

Abstract

Between December 2010 and April 2012, intensive care unit (ICU) patients in our hospital were infrequently colonized with extended-spectrum β-lactamase-positive bacteria (ESBLs). We hypothesized that these ESBLs originated from patients' room sinks, and this was prospectively investigated by weekly culturing of patients and sinks during a 20-week period. ESBLs were isolated from all 13 sinks. Four patients became colonized with ESBLs that were genetically identical to ESBLs that had previously been isolated from the sink. One of these patients died of pneumonia caused by the ESBL. Transmission from sinks to patients was stopped by integrating self-disinfecting siphons to all sinks on the ICU.

Keywords: Amplified fragment length polymorphism; Extended-spectrum β-lactamase-positive bacteria; Hospital reservoir; Intensive care unit; Sink.

MeSH terms

Environmental Microbiology*
Gram-Negative Bacteria / enzymology*
Gram-Negative Bacteria / isolation & purification*
Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / microbiology*
Humans
Infection Control / methods
Intensive Care Units
beta-Lactamases / metabolism*

Substances

beta-Lactamases