Published in:
01-11-2005 | Editorial
Antibiotic prescribing for ventilator-associated pneumonia: get it right from the beginning but be able to rapidly deescalate
Author:
Jean Chastre
Published in:
Intensive Care Medicine
|
Issue 11/2005
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Excerpt
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent ICU-acquired infection among patients receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) [
1,
2]. While controversy continues regarding the mortality due to this process, multiple studies have documented that VAP increases both ICU length of stay and MV duration [
1,
3,
4,
5]. VAP also contributes significantly to costs in the ICU. For example, two recent analyses suggest that VAP adds some $40,000 in costs per case [
3,
5]. Approximately 50% of antibiotics prescribed in ICUs are administered for respiratory tract infections [
6]. …