Abstract

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is among the most common infections in patients requiring endotracheal tubes with mechanical ventilation. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is associated with increased hospital costs, a greater number of days in the intensive care unit, longer duration of mechanical ventilation, and higher mortality. Despite widely accepted recommendations for interventions designed to reduce rates of VAP, few studies have assessed the ability of these interventions to improve patient outcomes. As the understanding of VAP advances and new technologies to reduce VAP become available, studies should directly assess patient outcomes before the health care community implements specific prevention approaches in clinical practice.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

O'Grady NP, Murray PR, Ames N

Institution

Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health, Bldg 10 Room 2C142, 10 Center Dr, MSC 1662, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. nogrady@mail.cc.nih.gov

Source

JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 307:23 2012 Jun 20 pg 2534-9

MeSH

Catheterization
Clostridium difficile
Combined Modality Therapy
Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous
Evidence-Based Medicine
Female
Hematologic Neoplasms
Humans
Lung
Mucus
Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated
Posture
Respiration, Artificial
Risk Factors
Stem Cell Transplantation
Suction

Pub Type(s)

Case Reports
Clinical Conference
Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22797453