Clinical usefulness of ventilator associated events in predicting ventilator associated pneumonia

Abstract

Corresponding author: Dr Amarja Ashok Havaldar MICU, St John’s Medical College, Kormangala, Bangalore -560034, India amarjahavaldar@rediffmail.com Abstract Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most common nosocomial infection in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Traditionally the clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS) has been used in the diagnosis of VAP. There is no firm agreement among critical care and infectious disease specialists regarding the diagnosis of VAP. The aim was to study the association between new conditions, ventilator-associated conditions (VAC) and infection related ventilatorassociated complications (IVAC) and VAP and whether if any of these precedes the diagnosis of VAP by CPIS.