Screening for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit: A Single-Institution Analysis of 1,013 Lower Respiratory Tract Cultures

Abstract

In this series of BALs, traditional screening tools for VAP missed the majority of microbiological confirmed cases. Screening based on either new CXR infiltrate or fever yielded an acceptably high sensitivity. The only scenario identified in which empiric antibiotics could be withheld safely was the absence of organisms on GS in the early VAP window.