Background Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that has become a major cause of concern, since it is a frequent cause of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The aim of the study was to describe the occurrence, the management and the control of an outbreak that occurred in an intensive care unit (ICU) of a teaching hospital in Southern Italy caused by multiple strains of extensively drug-resistant A. baumannii (XDRAB).MethodsCase-patient was defined as a patient with an healthcare-associated infection caused by an XDRAB isolate identified in a clinically significant culture. Environmental samples were collected from different surfaces. The isolates were identified by typical Gram stain morphology, using the Vitek 2 system (bioMérieux, France) and by MALDI-TOF MS mass spectrometry (bioMèrieux, France). Genotyping was performed through rep-PCR analysis.ResultsA patient presented an XDRAB ventilator-associated pneumonia at admission and was managed with strict isolation precautions until discharge. Five patients had a ventilator-associated pneumonia and two had a central line-associated bloodstream infection. Of the environmental samples, 1 sample obtained from the side of the bed of an infected patient yielded growth of XDRAB. Infection control measures were adopted. Rep-PCR analysis identified four patterns.ConclusionsThe integration of epidemiological and microbiological data and the application of infection control measures were crucial to bring such an outbreak to a rapid halt. The distinctive characteristic of this study was the complex molecular pattern of the outbreak, which subsided in a short period of time due to adherence to infection-control measures, confirming the fundamental role of molecular typing in the comprehension of outbreaks dynamics and of integrated control interventions for the interruption of epidemic events.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-2036-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

OBJECTIVES Appropriate use of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) reduces intraoperative wound contamination in pediatric surgery, thus minimizing the risk of surgical site infection (SSIs). Conversely, inappropriate use of SAP exposes patients to the risk of antibiotic side effects and contributes to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Our aims were to describe SAP administration and to analyze factors associated with nonadherence in pediatric patients. DESIGN Descriptive study. SETTING Overall, 955 pediatric patients underwent 1,038 surgical procedures. METHODS We assessed adherence to SAP international guidelines for surgical procedures performed on children aged <18 years in 2015 in 4 randomly selected hospitals in Calabria (Italy). The clinical records of these patients were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS Appropriate SAP administration or nonadministration pertained to 754 surgical procedures (72.6%). Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis was administered in 88.5% of 358 procedures with an SAP indication. Adherence to guidelines for appropriate drug choice were followed in 5.7% of cases, for route of administration in 76.7% of cases, for timing in 48.6% of cases, for duration in 14.5% of cases, and for dose in 91.5% of cases, and for all components in only 5 cases (1.6%). Among 680 procedures without SAP indication, 35.7% case patients received antibiotics. Inappropriate administration of antibiotics in procedures without SAP indication was associated with surgical specialty wards (P=.008), ordinary admission (P<.001), head and neck surgical procedures (P=.020), clean surgery (P=.017), and surgical duration (P=.010). CONCLUSIONS Discrepancies between SAP guidelines and actual practice behavior more frequently indicate excessive use of antibiotics than underuse. Increased awareness of SAP guidelines is required. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:823-831.

Background: Maternal and child health are internationally considered to be among the best measures for assessing health-care quality. The study was carried out with the following aims: 1) to assess the quality of perinatal care (PC) by measuring the frequencies of the five PC indicators developed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and comparing results with international standards; 2) to examine whether maternal, pregnancy care and neonatal characteristics could be factors associated with the quality of perinatal care hospital performance, measured through these indicators. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical charts of women over the age of 18 who experienced delivery in Gynecology/obstetrics wards between January-December 2016, and those of their newborns hospitalized in the Neonatology or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of a public non-teaching hospital in Catanzaro (Italy). Indicators were calculated according to the methodology specified in the manual for JCAHO measures. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to test the independent association of maternal, pregnancy care and neonatal characteristics on the adherence to JCAHO PC indicators. Results: The records of 1943 women and 1974 newborns were identified and reviewed in order to be included in at least one of the PC indicators. Elective/early-term delivery, was performed in 27.6% of eligible women, far from the recommended goal (0%); cesarean section in nulliparous women with a term, singleton baby in a vertex position exceeded the suggested target of < 24% and the adherence to antenatal steroids administration was suboptimal (87%). Results of the exclusive breastfeeding indicator achieved a better performance (81%) and compliance with the PC-04 indicator was satisfactory with only 0.4% healthcare-associated bloodstream infection developed in eligible newborns. Conclusions: This is the first study performed in Italy that has evaluated the quality of PC by using all the five JCAHO indicators. The application of this feasible set of indicators allowed us to measure several aspects of PC for which there is no standardized monitoring system in Italy. Our findings revealed significant deficiencies in the adherence to recommended processes of PC and suggest that there is still substantial work required to improve care.