Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) occurs frequently in critical illness with significant morbidity, mortality, and additional hospital costs. The epidemiology of symptomatic ward-acquired CAUTI (within 48 hours of intensive care unit [ICU] admission) has not been carefully examined. The objective of our study was to identify the patient characteristics and microbiology of symptomatic CAUTI in critical illness. A 4-year retrospective observational study (2013-2016) was conducted at a single adult ICU with 30 beds in a tertiary hospital in Northeast China. The enrolled patients were over 18 years of age and had been diagnosed as having symptomatic CAUTIs in the ICU from January 2013 to December 2016. The information of clinicopathological characteristics (such as age, sex, underlying diseases, hospital admission diagnosis, ICU admission source, severity of illness, duration of urinary catheterization, use of antibiotics, duration of ICU stay, and ICU mortality) was recorded in an electronic database by senior clinicians who were blinded to the study purpose and design.

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