Acta clinica Croatica, Vol. 55. No. 3., 2016.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.20471/acc.2016.55.03.03
Ventilator-associated pneumonia: comparing cadaveric liver transplant and non-transplant surgical patients
Katarina Tomulić Brusich
orcid.org/0000-0001-6528-8648
; Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivana Acan
; Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia
Nataša Višković Filipčić
; Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a frequent complication in intensive care surgical patients, particularly those with high severity scores on admission. We studied the incidence and clinical outcome of ventilator-associated pneumonia among patients undergoing major general surgery procedures and those undergoing cadaveric liver transplantation in our hospital. Patients with the intensive care unit stay longer than four days having undergone surgery or transplantation and mechanically ventilated for more than 48 hours were included in the study. Ventilator-associated pneumonia diagnosis was based on a combination of radiological signs (progressive infiltrate on chest radiograph), clinical signs (fever >38.3 °C, leukocytes >12×109/mL) and microbiological data (positive culture from tracheal aspiration >105 or bronchoalveolar lavage >104 colonies/mL). Medical records of 1037 patients were reviewed and 157 patients were found to have been mechanically ventilated for
more than 48 hours: 62 transplanted and 95 non-transplanted. Only 39 (24.84%) patients matched the criteria for ventilator-associated pneumonia. There were no differences in sex, age, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay or outcome between the two groups. However, the main difference was the mean severity score on admission (Simplified Acute Physiology Score II) which was higher among non-transplant patients (42±16 vs. 31±9; p=0.03). Gram-negative bacteria were the leading causative agents (82.03%) and were multidrug-resistant. In the intensive care surgical population, transplantation per se does not seem to increase patient risk for either ventilator-associated pneumonia acquisition or worse outcomes.
Keywords
Pneumonia, ventilator-associated; Respiration, artificial; Liver transplantation; Organ dysfunction scores
Hrčak ID:
172394
URI
Publication date:
9.11.2016.
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