Published online Jun 9, 2023. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v12.i3.165
Peer-review started: December 23, 2022
First decision: January 31, 2023
Revised: February 3, 2023
Accepted: March 24, 2023
Article in press: March 24, 2023
Published online: June 9, 2023
Processing time: 167 Days and 0.4 Hours
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most common infection encountered among intubated patients, occurring in 10%-30% of mechanically ventilated patients.
The lack of data from the Kingdom of Bahrain stimulated us to investigate VAP incidence, risk factors, and microbial profiles in the central hospital in the kingdom.
We aimed to define VAP incidence in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Salmaniya Medical Complex and review the risk factors and the predominant pathogens that cause VAP to choose the appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy for VAP-related sepsis in adult ICU.
The study was a prospective, observational, cross-sectional study done between November 2019 to June 2020 to determine the microbiological profile in adult patients with VAP and evaluate the magnitude of multidrug-resistant (MDR) microbes among those patients. We used patients who needed mechanical ventilation and did not develop VAP as a control group. We included adult and adolescent patients (> 14 years old) who were admitted to the ICU and required intubation and mechanical ventilation.
The incidence of VAP was 29.7% during the study period, with a calculated VAP rate of 22.14 events per 1000 ventilator days and a mean age of 52 years ± 20. Most VAP cases had late-onset VAP with a mean number of ICU days before the development of VAP of 9.96 ± 6.55. Gram-negative contributed to most VAP cases in our unit, with MDR Acinetobacter being the most identified pathogen.
The VAP rate in our ICU was relatively high compared to the international benchmark.
The high VAP rate in our hospital triggered us to initiate a vital action plan to reinforce the implementation of the VAP prevention bundle.