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Appropriateness and delay to initiate therapy in ventilator-associated pneumonia

¹ Pulmonary and Critical Care Divisions, Dept of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas José de San Martín, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and ² Critical Care Division, Policlínico Alejandro Posadas, Haedo, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. ³ Dept of Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, NY, USA.

CORRESPONDENCE: C. M. Luna, Acevedo 1070, Banfield, 1828, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fax: 54 1142026068. E-mail: cymluna{at}fmed.uba.ar

Keywords: Adequate therapy, antimicrobials, delayed therapy, nosocomial pneumonia, outcome, resistant pathogens

Received: April 23, 2005
Accepted August 12, 2005

Inappropriate therapy (IT) and delayed initiation of appropriate therapy (DIAT) result in inadequate therapy in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The aim of the current study was to assess the impact of DIAT in VAP. A total of 76 mechanically ventilated patients with bacteriologically confirmed VAP were prospectively evaluated in the intensive care unit of six hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Appropriate therapy was defined as coverage of all the identified pathogens by the antimicrobial therapy administered at the time of VAP clinical diagnosis. The clinical pulmonary infection score was measured during the 3 days before, at the onset and during the days which followed the onset of VAP. A total of 24 patients received adequate therapy; mortality was 29.2%. The remaining 52 patients received either IT (n = 16) or DIAT (n = 36); the mortality was 63.5% combined, and 75.0 and 58.3% for IT and DIAT, respectively (statistically significant compared with adequate therapy).

Inappropriate therapy and delayed initiation of appropriate therapy increased the mortality of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Patients with inappropriate therapy and/or delayed initiation of appropriate therapy had a more gradual increase in clinical pulmonary infection score than those receiving adequate therapy, and this increase was found to occur prior to the time of the clinical diagnosis.

In conclusion, these findings might provide the rationale for a trial of earlier initiation of therapy, based on clinical grounds in an effort to improve the outcome of patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia.

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