The importance of bacterial sepsis in intensive care unit patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: implications for future care in the age of increasing antiretroviral resistance.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

DESIGN: An observational cohort study with retrospective chart review.

SETTING: ICU of an urban university medical center.

PATIENTS: Consecutive ICU admissions of patients with AIDS at an urban university medical center between December 1993 and June 1996.

INTERVENTIONS: None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: For each patient, we recorded ICU admission diagnosis, clinical characteristics, and outcome. Among 129 ICU admissions of patients with AIDS, 102 (79%) were admitted for infections, of which (45%) had infections caused by bacteria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and other enteric pathogens were the most frequent isolates. Pneumonia accounted for 65% of 102 admissions for infections. Overall hospital mortality was 54%, but mortality was higher (68%) for patients with bacterial sepsis. Neutropenia was associated with differences in unadjusted survival rates, whereas CD4 counts were not. Independent predictors of hospital mortality included increasing acute physiology scores and severity of sepsis.

CONCLUSIONS: In our ICU, among patients with AIDS, sepsis resulting from bacterial infection is now a more frequent cause of admission than Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Severity of illness and the presence of severe sepsis were the clinical predictors most associated with increased mortality. Patients who are not receiving or responding to highly active antiretroviral therapy may become as likely to be admitted to an ICU with a treatable bacterial infection as with classic opportunistic infections. Therefore, broad-spectrum empirical antibacterial therapy is particularly important when the etiology of infection is uncertain.