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Timothy G. Buchman, MD, PhD
St Louis, Mo

Arch Surg. 2001;136:1409.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Intercurrent Candida infection complicates surgical critical care. The article by McKinnon and colleagues is an observational study of the risk factors for Candida colonization and infection among patients with an SICU length of stay exceeding 5 days. The authors conclude that patients who have higher numbers of risk factors at admission and accumulate higher numbers of those risk factors during the SICU stay are at higher risk for Candida infection.

The critical reader will note this is an observational study. There was no protocol for prophylaxis, no schedule for screening cultures, and no control of confounding variables. Figure 2 in their article suggests that the differences in risk factors may be present on admission since changes in risk factors among the groups seem to "track" in parallel following admission. Figure 1 suggests that patients who respond to critical care with objective improvement in their physiologic . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Temporal Assessment of Candida Risk Factors in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit
Peggy S. McKinnon, Debra A. Goff, Jack W. Kern, John W. Devlin, Jeffrey F. Barletta, Sondra J. Sierawski, Anne C. Mosenthal, Prasanna Gore, Ambarish J. Ambegaonkar, and Teresa J. Lubowski
Arch Surg. 2001;136(12):1401-1408.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT