Doğan AKDOĞAN, Gülhan SARIÇAM, Kadriye KAHVECİ

Evaluation of infections in neurological diseases in a palliative care centre

In this study on neurologic diseases treated in palliative care, we aimed to identify the factors predisposing the sites in the body to develop infections and the factors affecting the quantities of growth in the cultures. The medical records of patients with neurologic diseases in the palliative care centre (PCC) were retrospectively reviewed covering the years between 2014 and 2018. The patient data including the age, gender, length of stay (LOS) in PCC; their diagnoses and comorbid diseases, nutritional status, pressure ulcers (PU) and their emergence; and the quantities of growth in blood, urine, wound, rectal, and tracheal aspirate cultures (TA) were collected and compared. One hundred and forty-three patients were included in the study. The highest quantity of growth was observed in urine cultures. The rates of growth were statistically higher in blood cultures of patients with a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) and a tracheostomy (p=0.001, p=0.013). The quantities of growth in wound cultures were lower in the cancer patients, whereas, those in the wound and rectal cultures were significantly higher in the patients with PU. The growth quantities were higher in the TA cultures of the patients with hypoxic brain injury and tracheostomies (p=0.033, p

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