The role of water fittings in intensive care rooms as reservoirs for the colonization of patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

Objective To assess the role of the water environment in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization of patients in intensive care units in the absence of a recognized outbreak. Design and setting Prospective, single-centre study over an 8-week period in two adult ICUs at a university hospital. Environmental samples were taken from the water fittings of rooms once per week, during a 8-week period. Patients were screened weekly for P. aeruginosa carriage. Environmental and humans isolates were genotyped by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Results P. aeruginosa was detected in 193 (86.2%) of the 224 U-bend samples and 10 of the 224 samples taken from the tap (4.5%). Seventeen of the 123 patients admitted were colonized with P. aeruginosa . Only one of the 14 patients we were able to evaluate was colonized by a clone present in the water environment of his room before the patient's first positive sample was obtained. Conclusion The role of the water environment in the acquisition of P. aeruginosa by intensive care patients remains unclear, but water fittings seem to play a smaller role in non-epidemic situations than expected by many operational hospital hygiene teams.