Analysis of Infection Factors According to the Results of Culture of Patients more than 65 Years Old, who Applied to University Affiliate 3rd Stage Hospital Emergency Department with Findings of Infection

Objective: Today, the elderly population is increasing and the emergency service applications are increasing for this reason. In elderly patients, infection findings are not specific as in younger patients, and atypical findings are more common in elderly patients. In this study, it was aimed to analyze the infectious agents detected in patients aged 65 and over who applied to the emergency department with signs or suspicion of infection and to draw attention to this issue.
Material and Methods: Our study was planned as a single-center and retrospective observational study. Our study included 1,503 patients who were admitted to the emergency department between January 1, 2019 and January 1, 2020, and who met the study criteria, among whom infectious diseases were considered in the evaluation. The demographic, disease and outcome data of the patients were recorded. For statistical significance, p<0.05 was accepted as the significance level.
Results: In our study, 51.2% of 1,503 cases were male and 48.8% were female. The mean age of the cases was 76.45±7.49 years in men and 78.73±7.99 years in women. The most common reasons for admission were disordered general condition, abdominal pain and dyspnea; the most common foci of infection are pneumonia, urinary tract infection and biliary tract diseases, respectively; the most common infectious agents were Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. 70.1% of the cases were hospitalized in the ward, 22.4% in the intensive care units, and mortality was observed in 7.8% of the cases. Mortality was found to be higher in cases with Pseudomonas auroginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.
Conclusion: It was determined that elderly patients came to the emergency department with more atypical complaints, they were at higher risk of mortality due to infection than younger patients, and resistant infectious agents were more common in these patients and caused mortality.

Keywords: Geriatrics, infectious, mortality, emergency