Analysis of Risk Factors Related to Severity and Mortality Due to Nosocomial Infections in Burn Patients of the Military Hospital Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco

Aim: The aim of this work is to analyze the risk factors related to the severity and the mortality due to nosocomial infections in burn patients.

Methodology: This is a retrospective study based on 212 burn patients who were infected inside the Burn Department of Mohammed V Instruction Military Hospital in Rabat, during the period from January 2004 to December 2012.

Results: The results show that infections with Staphylococcus spp are the most frequent in burn patients with 39% of all cases. The upper limbs represent more than half of the infected organs with 56.6% of cases.

The binary logistic regression showed that patients burnt at the abdomen display 9-fold higher risk of severity than patients burnt at other organs. On the other hand, head infection multiplies by 4 the severity of cases, compared to infection of other organs.

Furthermore, we demonstrated that infections with Acinetobacter baumannii and Proteus mirabilis were positively and significantly associated with the severity of burns with risks of 4.2 (p = 0.001) and 3.6 (p = 0.02) respectively.

The results also show that mortality does not depend on the infected organs but depends on the infection causing germs. Indeed, the infection with Acinetobacter baumannii was positively and significantly associated with death (OR = 3.3, p<0.05).

Conclusion: In conclusion, considered that nosocomial infections are the main cause of mortality in severe burn cases, all the means and strategies of fight should be oriented towards preventative measures.