Rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infection in tertiary care hospitals in 3 Arabian Gulf countries: A 6-year surveillance study

The true burden of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) remains largely unknown because of a lack of national and regional surveillance reports in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The purpose of this study was to estimate location-specific CAUTI rates in the GCC region and to compare them with published reports from the U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC).

CAUTI rates and urinary catheter utilization between 2008 and 2013 were calculated using NHSN methodology pooled from 6 hospitals in 3 GCC countries: Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Bahrain. The standardized infection ratios of the CAUTIs were compared with published reports of the NHSN and INICC.

A total of 286 CAUTI events were diagnosed during 6 years of surveillance, covering 89,254 catheter days and 113,807 patient days. The overall CAUTI rate was 3.2 per 1,000 catheter days (95% confidence interval, 2.8-3.6), with an overall urinary catheter utilization of 0.78. The CAUTI rates showed a wide variability between participating hospitals, with approximately 80% reduction during the study. The overall compliance with the urinary catheter bundle implementation during the second half of the study was 65%. The risk of CAUTI in GCC hospitals was 35% higher than the NHSN hospitals, but 37% lower than the INICC hospitals.

CAUTI rates pooled from a sample of GCC hospitals are quite different from rates in both developing and developed countries.

American journal of infection control. 2016 Sep 28 [Epub ahead of print]

Wafa Al Nasser, Aiman El-Saed, Amina Al-Jardani, Abdulhakeem Althaqafi, Huda Alansari, Jameela Alsalman, Zaina Al Maskari, Ayman El Gammal, Seif S Al-Abri, Hanan H Balkhy

Infection Prevention and Control, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal Hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia., Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Gulf Cooperation Council States and World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Infection Prevention & Control, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt., Gulf Cooperation Council States and World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Infection Prevention & Control, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Infection Prevention and Control, Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman., King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Infection Prevention and Control, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia., Infection Prevention and Control, Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama, Bahrain., Gulf Cooperation Council States and World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Infection Prevention & Control, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Infection Prevention and Control, Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama, Bahrain., Infection Prevention and Control, Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman., Infection Prevention and Control, King Abdulaziz Hospital, Al hassa, Saudi Arabia., Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Gulf Cooperation Council States and World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Infection Prevention & Control, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: .