Abstract

Background Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) are the most common cause of Hospitalacquired infection affecting about 150 million individuals annually worldwide. UTIs are grouped into uncomplicated and complicated infections especially in elderly patients. Data on CAUTIs in geriatric age group in hospital are very less. This study was done to elucidate the causative factors for CAUTIs and related outcomes (in terms of length of stay and mortality), in geriatric patients (>65yrs) admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Northern India.
Methods A prospective study was conducted on consecutive 100 patients who had undergone urinary bladder catheterization from period between 01 Jul 2020 to 01 Jul 2021 at tertiary care service hospital in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. All Geriatric patients (>65yrs age) who presented to the hospital were included in the study. Written informed consent was taken from all the included patients.
Results Mean age of study subjects in present study was 76.3 years with 69% male and 31% female subjects. The incidence of UTI among catheterized patients was 63%. The incidence of CAUTI was much higher in women than in men which is in consonance with other studies. In our study about three fourths (77.6%) catheterized patients with more than 7 days duration developed UTI. In the present study almost half (52.4%) of the patients developed bacteriuria within the first week while 87.3% developed bacteriuria within 2 weeks. Symptomatic UTI was observed in 51.9% episodes where fever was the most observed symptom (81.5%) followed by pain (50%).
Conclusion Modifiable risk factors should be addressed adequately and prevent avoidable catheterization to reduce incidence of UTI.

Keywords: CAUTI; Complicated UTI; Catheterization in elderly; Infection

Abbreviations:CAUTI: Catheter Acquired Urinary Tract Infection; UTI: Urinary Tract Infections