TITLE:
Pseudomonas aeruginosa ventilator associated pneumonia: improved outcomes with earlier follow-up
AUTHORS:
Elpis Giantsou, Nikolaos Liratzopoulos, Eleni Efraimidou, Konstantinos I. Manolas, J. Duncan Young
KEYWORDS:
Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia; Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score; Pseudomonas Aeruginosa
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.2 No.2,
February
24,
2010
ABSTRACT: It is not clear what is the appropriate timing to follow-up patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and Clinical Pulmonary Infe- ction Score >6 between days 3-5 of an appro- priate antibiotic treatment. We studied 122 patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa VAP. A follow-up respiratory sample was collected on days three or five ( “day-three” and “day-five” group ) and treatment was modified 48h later. Molecular typing identified super-infections or persistence. For serial data another respiratory sample was collected, on day three from the “day-five” group and on day five from the “day-three” group. Sixty patients, in the “day- three” group compared to 62 in the “day-five” group, had reduced fourteen-day mortality ( 18.3% and 38.7%; p=0.01 ) and fewer days in intensive care unit (17.2 ± 4.3 compared to 27.3 ± 4.7, p6, improved fourteen-day mortality and shorter duration of stay in health-care facilities were observed with earlier follow-up.