Background: Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) has become a significant problem in terms of public health and clinical outcome.
Objective: To assess the epidemiology, treatment and mortality in patients with infection due to CPE.
Material and methods: A retrospective analysis of 163 patients with CPE infection was carried out in a university hospital from July 2013 to October 2015.
Results: A total of 163 patients were included over the study period. Klebsiella pneumoniae was isolated in 95.1% of cases, and most of carbapenemases belonged to the OXA-48 group (93.0%). Acquisition was nosocomial in 124 cases (77.0%), healthcare-associated in 30 (18.6%), and 7 cases (4.3%) were community-acquired. The most frequent infections identified in this study were urinary tract (48.4%) and respiratory (19.5%) infections. Approximately half of the patients received antibiotic monotherapy. The 30-day mortality rate was 23.3%. Multivariate analysis revealed that the presence of septic shock at diagnosis (OR 4.2; IC 95% 1.5-11) was independently associated with an increase in death during the first month, unable to identify association with inappropriate antibiotic treatment.
Discussion: Further studies are needed to clarify whether antibiotic treatment of EPC infections should be combined or if monotherapy might be sufficient in mild infections.