Hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) is defined as pneumonia that occurs 48 hours or longer after hospital admission and excludes any infection that is incubating at the time of admission1. It is also commonly termed nosocomial pneumonia. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is widely recognised as pneumonia developing after at least 48 hours of mechanical ventilation (MV), and can be considered a subg...

BACKGROUND Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is a serious infection among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS We reviewed the medical charts of all patients admitted to the adult intensive care units of the Massachusetts General Hospital that went on to develop VAP during a five year period. RESULTS 200 patients were included in the study of which 50 (25%) were infected w...

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent nosocomial infection in the intensive care unit;1 between 10% and 20% of patients who receive more than 48 hours of mechanical ventilation will develop VAP.1,2 VAP is associated with prolonged hospital stay,3–5 higher cost,6 and a 2-fold higher risk of mortality.2 Prevention of VAP is essential. Recent advances in our understanding of t...

Hospital-associated pneumonia (HAP) is one of the most common infections acquired among hospitalized patients. HAP is associated with excess mortality and increased medical care costs. The rise in HAP due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria has resulted in more common administration of inappropriate antimicrobial treatment, with an associated increased risk of hospital mortality. Ventilator-associ...

BACKGROUND The outcome of chest trauma depends on many factors, one of which includes comorbidities. Nowadays, as the elderly population is on the rise, more and more trauma victims are being admitted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a comorbidity in trauma centre intensive care units. However, there are hardly any studies describing the outcome of such patients with chest trauma a...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the rate, timing, the incidence of complications of percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) and its effects by on nosocomial pneumonia. METHODS The study is a retrospective analysis of 104 patients (56 males, 48 females) > or = 18 years (54 +/- 19) who had undergone a PDT for respiratory failure during the five years 1998-2003. RESULT...

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of 0.12% chlorhexidine rinses and an oral care protocol on ventilator-associated pneumonia rates. A quasi-experimental preintervention-postintervention design was used. The sample included all patients admitted to critical care and on mechanical ventilation at any time during the study period. Data were collected 6 months before and 12 months ...

BACKGROUND To facilitate the decision-making process for therapy and prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in patients undergoing recent antibiotic exposure, this study investigated whether the development of VAP episodes caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa or other pathogens are related to different risk factors, thereby distinguishing two risk population for this serious complicati...

INTRODUCTION Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been extensively used for potentially reversible acute respiratory failure associated with severe influenza A (H1N1) pneumonia; however, it remains an expensive, resource-intensive therapy, with a high associated mortality. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to summarize and pool outcomes data available in the published lite...

Dear Editor I read with interest the review fromHellweg [1]. However the findings of Ntoumenopoulos et al. [2] were in-accurately reported. Ntoumenopoulos et al. [2] investigated the effect of chest physiotherapy in sixty adult patients intubated and mechanically ventilated for at least 48-hours. There were no differences in the duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay in ICU or morta...