Relationship between bacterial contamination of oxygen humidification bottles in comprehensive ICU and nosocomial infection

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between bacteria isolated from oxygen humidification bottles in ICU and nosocomial infection.METHODS Bacteria isolated from oxygen humidification bottles in 3 group in ICU were compared with that from sputum of inpatients lower respiratory tract,and the drug resistance of isolated bacteria was analyzed.RESULTS The contamination rates of used group were 64.81% and 75.38%,but that of the pre-used group was 30.18%.The bacteria isolated from oxygen humidification bottles and from patients′ sputum mainly consisted of Gram-negative bacilli,accounting for 64.81% and 75.38%,respectively.There was significant difference between the lower respiratory infection patient and oxygen humidification bottles in bacterial distribution(P0.05).The bacterial drug resistance rates from patients were higher than that from oxygen humidification bottles(P0.001).CONCLUSION The results suggest that bacterial contamination of oxygen humidification bottles is one of the factors for respiratory tract infection.Replacing oxygen humidification bottles regularly is an effective intervention to prevent nosocomial infection.