Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia - Research Paper Example

Ventilator is a machine assembled mechanically to transmit breathable air in and out of lungs. The ventilator provides a mechanism of air exchange for patients with breathing difficulties or unable to breath. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a type of pneumonia that occurs after forty-eight hours when patients have received mechanical ventilation and intubated. Pneumonia is ranked second in most common nosocomial disease in the critically ill patients. More than 86% of nosocomial pneumonias are related to mechanical ventilation hence termed as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).

The infection has major causes believed to be Acinetobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (Datta, 2013). According to the study, that was done from April 1, 2006 to January 31, 2008 at Radius Special Hospital in USA; it showed that for every twenty-three cases of VAP infection, 19 casualties were associated with 157 LTACH. The above translates to an infection rate of 14.6%, which corresponded to 1.67 cases in 1000 ventilator days. Microbial data proves that 91% of the patients who reported to the hospital had VAP infection.

Patients with critically conditions which are intubated for more than 24 hours are at 6-21 times risk to develop VAP in USA. Mortality and morbidity associated with the VAP development are high, with the rates of mortality, which ranges from 20-41% (Datta, 2013). VAP increases critical care, ventilator days and hospital length of stay. There are two ways of managing VAP. One is based on semiquantitative or nonquantitative cultures and clinical criteria. The other utilizes quantitative measures of the respiratory specimens.

The principal organisms responsible for the VAP infection are Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacteriaceae. Etiologic agents are differing according to the patient’s population in an intensive care unit, prior antimicrobial