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The objective of the present study was to investigate whether patient age is associated with vascular access failure during maintenance hemodialysis. Thus, patients who had a successful permanent hemodialysis vascular access installed (Group N: 314 cases), and those who required vascular access revision (Group R: 108 patients) were studied. To assess the association between patient age and the risk of vascular access failure, Cox proportional hazards regression was used to determine hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). We found that in Group N, the significant risk factors were age, gender, and diabetes mellitus (95% CI: 1.004-1.013, 0.380-0.827, 1.279-2.859). Using a univariate analysis model, significant hazard ratios (HR) were found with ages of 60 (CI: 1.062-2.302), 65 (CI: 1.052-2.280), and 70 (CI: 1.082-2.537) years, with the largest HR at 70 years of age (HR: 1.657). In contrast, in Group R, multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards identified only one prognostic variable, the location of the vascular access. In Group R, univariate analysis models showed that age was not a significant factor. We conclude that our data show that age is a risk factor for the successful maintenance of initial permanent hemodialysis vascular access. Other risk factors include gender and diabetes mellitus. However, these factors were not related to the successful maintenance of revised vascular access.

The emergence of enterococci with alarming rates of resistance concomitantly to multi-drugs highlights the need for a more rational and restricted use of antimicrobials, in order to minimize the selection and spread of such strains. An early detection of these problem pathogens is also important for preventing any treatment failures.

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains with the exception of urinary strains were isolated from the inpatients in urology ward hospitalized in 2003 and medical workers. Biotype according to the production of coagulase, enterotoxin and mupirocin sensitivity, and genotype by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and clinical background were determined for the MRSA strains to analyze the transmission route of the infection. In 34 medical workers in urology ward, MRSA were isolated in 6 (17.6%) workers from the nasal cavity, and the rate of colonization in doctors was higher than in nurses. Furthermore, mupirocin-resistant strains were isolated from two medical workers. 18 MRSA strains were isolated in 2003 and the accounting was 8 strains from wounds, 6 strains from sputum or nasal cavity, 3 strains from blood, and 2 strains from urinary tract. Most of the patients with MRSA had operations under general anesthesia or were under severe conditions with malignant tumors. No MRSA was detected at the same time from the same rooms. There were some rooms in which the MRSA detected rate was high, however no MRSA was isolated from hospital environments and dumping bacteria. These results suggest that the involvement of the medical workers and the spread of MRSA in the society might be important as infection source and for transmission of MRSA in hospital.

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