Health Care-Associated Clostridium difficile Infection Carlene A. Muto INTRODUCTION Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming, obligate anaerobic, gram-positive rod. It derives its name from observations in the laboratory. The organism was…
Management of Occupational Blood-Borne Pathogen Exposure Ivar L. Frithsen INTRODUCTION Blood-borne pathogen exposures (BBPE) among health care personnel (HCP) can occur in virtually all clinical settings with an estimated annual…
Surgical Site Infections Ioana Chirca Camelia E. Marculescu There are more than 25 million surgical procedures performed every year in the United States, and surgical site infections (SSI) complicate 1%…
Pneumonia in Health Care Curtis J. Coley II Melissa A. Miller EPIDEMIOLOGY As health care and associated technology have advanced, delivery of care has expanded to include not only the…
Health Care-Associated Urinary Tract Infection Evgenia Kagan Joseph F. John Jr. OVERVIEW The genitourinary tract is a complex filtering and plumbing system. It can be attacked by microbial invasion at…
Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections David B. Banach Michael J.Satlin David P. Calfee INTRODUCTION Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients and…
Cardiac Device Infections Abdel Kareem Abu Malouh Jonathan P. Moorman EPIDEMIOLOGY The increased rate of cardiac device implantation in addition to an increased number of devices in older patients with…
Infective Endocarditis: Treatment and Prophylaxis Hana Saleh Jonathan P. Moorman INTRODUCTION Empirical antibiotic treatment must be immediately started and targeted against the suspected organisms in patients with either native or…
Infective Endocarditis: Diagnosis Michael Davis Jonathan P. Moorman Infective endocarditis refers to the microbial infection of the valvular and nonvalvular endothelium of the heart. Classification of infective endocarditis has been…
