Introduction:

Bacteremia is the infection characterized by the presence of bacteria in the blood, a frequent phenomenon in the hospital environment and more in the intensive care units.

Objective:

To determine the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients with bacteremia in the intensive care unit.

Method:

Descriptive study in the intensive care unit of the Central Military Hospital "Dr. Carlos J. Finlay ", during the years 2016 and 2017. Of 397 patients with bacteremia, those aged 18 years and over were included, admitted to intensive care for 48 hours or more and with positive blood cultures.

Results:

143 blood cultures (5.75%) were positive; 37.1% of the patients were older than 60 years. Secondary bacteremia was 87.41%, the most common source of infection was the central venous catheter (44.05%) and the respiratory system (40.55%). Germs that grew in blood cultures: positive coagulase staphylococcus (23.77%) followed by Acinetobacter (16.78%); 103 cultures were monomicrobial and 40 polymicrobial. There was septic shock in 54 patients (37.76%) and 47 died. The overall mortality was 32.86%.

Conclusions:

The incidence of secondary bacteremia was higher than the primary, as well as the monomicrobial over the polymicrobial. The most frequent source of infection was the respiratory system and the risk factors present were: parenteral nutrition, diabetes mellitus, neoplasia and age over 60 years. Staphylococcus coagulase positive was the most frequent germ. The incidence of septic shock and mortality were high.

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