Preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia: does the evidence support the practice?
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.
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
Naomi P
NP
O'Grady
Patrick R
PR
Murray
Nancy
N
Ames
D002404:Catheterization; D016360:Clostridioides difficile; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D009093:Mucus; D053717:Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011187:Posture; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D013396:Suction