In a large prospectively collected database, the risk of death at 30 days in ICU patients was far greater in those with hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) than in those with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) even after adjustment for prognostic factors, according to a large study that compared mortality risk for these complications.
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The data for this newly published study were drawn from an evaluation of 14,212 patients treated at 23 ICUs participating in a collaborative French network OUTCOMEREA and published Critical Care Medicine.
HAP in ICU patients “was associated with an 82% increase in the risk of death at day 30,” reported a team of investigators led by Wafa Ibn Saied, MD, of the Université Paris Diderot. Although VAP and HAP were independent risk factors (P both less than .0001) for death at 30 days, VAP increased risk by 38%, less than half of HAP, which increased risk by 82%.
From an observational but prospective database initiated in 1997, this study evaluated 7,735 ICU patients at risk for VAP and 9,747 at risk for HAP. Of those at risk, defined by several factors including an ICU stay of more than 48 hours, HAP developed in 8% and VAP developed in 1%.
The 30-day mortality rates at 30 days after pneumonia were 23.9% for HAP and 28.4% for VAP. The greater risk of death by HR was identified after an analysis that adjusted for mortality risk factors, the adequacy of initial treatment, and other factors, such as prior history of pneumonia.
In HAP patients, the rate of mortality at 30 days was 32% in the 75 who were reintubated but only 16% in the 101 who were not. Adequate empirical therapy within the first 24 hours for HAP was not associated with a reduction in the risk of death.
As in the HAP patients, mortality was not significantly higher in VAP patients who received inadequate empirical therapy, compared with those who did, according to the authors.
Previous studies have suggested that both HAP and VAP increase risk of death in ICU patients, but the authors of this study believe that the relative risk of HAP “is underappreciated.” They asserted, based on these most recent data as well as on previously published analyses, that nonventilated HAP results in “significant increases in cost, length of stay, and mortality.”
The researchers had no disclosures.
SOURCE: Saied WI et al. Crit Care Med. 2018 Nov 7. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000003553.