Risk factors of sepsis and prevalence of multidrug‐resistant organisms in pediatric cardiac surgery in tertiary care teaching rural hospital in India: A retrospective observational study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cardiac surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass result in an immunoparalyzed state in children making them susceptible to sepsis and other hospital‐acquired infections. Therefore, identification of the risk factors of sepsis would lead to appropriate management. The current study seeks to evaluate the prevalence of sepsis and risk factors linked to sepsis in pediatric cardiac surgical patients and the subsequent prevalence of multidrug‐resistant organisms. METHODS: A retrospective, single‐center observational study was conducted including 100 pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) after cardiac surgery between January 2017 and February 2018. All patient data were obtained from the medical record department of the hospital. Patient case report form comprised demography, surgery details, preoperative and postoperative hematological reports, and clinical details. After collecting the data, chi‐square test and logistic regression analysis were used to determine the risk factors linked to sepsis. RESULTS: The prevalence of sepsis in our population was 27% and the mortality rate due to sepsis was 1%. The only statistically significant risk factor for sepsis we discovered in this analysis was prolonged ICU stay for more than 5 days. A total of eight patients had blood cultures positive for bacterial infection. The alarming finding was that all eight were infected with multidrug‐resistant organisms, demanding the last line of antibacterials. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that special clinical care is required when ICU stay is prolonged to lower the risk of sepsis. These new and upcoming infections not only promote high mortality and morbidity rates but also contribute to increased cost of care due to the use of newer broad‐spectrum antibiotics and longer hospital stay. The high prevalence of multidrug‐resistant organisms is unacceptable in the current scenario and hospital infection and prevention control play a crucial role in minimizing such infections.