Bacterial aetiology in ventilator-associated pneumonia at a Swedish university hospital

Abstract

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common complication of respiratory support and is associated with increased mortality, morbidity and costs, and a prolonged stay in the intensive care unit. Scandinavian data on the aetiology in VAP are lacking. We hereby present a retrospective study on the aetiology of VAP diagnosed by protective specimen brush culture at Malmö University Hospital in relation to early- and late-onset VAP, antibiotic treatment and the incidence of drug-resistant bacteria. Patients registered with a diagnosis of VAP between January 2004 and September 2007 were included in the study. Sixty-five of 109 patients diagnosed with VAP met the inclusion criteria, and 103 bacterial isolates were cultured from these patients. The most common findings among the 65 VAP episodes were Enterobacteriaceae (28), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (13), Haemophilus influenzae (12) and Staphylococcus aureus (8). Patients with no antibiotic treatment at the onset of VAP had significantly more H. influenzae (p = 0.035) and Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria (p = 0.019). There was no difference in incidence of P. aeruginosa between early- and late-onset VAP. Resistant bacteria were found in 18% of the patients.

Acknowledgements

We thank Maria Rissler, Secretary at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Malmö, Lund University and Jonas Björk, PhD, Statistician at the Competence Centre for Clinical Research, Lund University.

Declaration of interest: None of the authors has any conflict of interest in this work.