VENTILATOR-ASSOCIATED PNEUMONIA

Abstract

Pneumonia is the second most common nosocomial infection in the United States and the leading cause of death from hospital-acquired infections, with a crude mortality rate ranging from 20% to 50%.1-4 Furthermore, it is the single most common infection acquired in the intensive care unit (ICU).5 Ventilator-associated pneumonia, denoting nosocomial pneumonia arising 48 hours or more after initiation of mechanical ventilation, complicates the course of up to 24% of intubated patients; in some studies, ventilator-associated pneumonia accounts for almost 90% of infections in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.6,7 This was a prospective observational cohort study, the purpose of which was to evaluate the incidence, microbiology, and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of isolated microorganisms in ventilator-associated pneumonia at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, a tertiary-care center in Lebanon. Currently available data from the United States and Europe do not necessarily reflect the trends in developing countries. Also, infecting organisms and resistance patterns differ widely among various centers6,8,9; this has major therapeutic implications. This study helped to discern epidemiologic and microbiological data that might be particular to this part of the world.