The Incidence And Risk Factors Nosocomial Pneumonia In A Neuromedical Intensive Care Unit

This retrospective study examined the incidence and factors influencing the occurrence of nonsocomial pneumonia (NP) in a neuromedical intensive care unit (NICU). Of the 57 patients admitted to the NICU over one year, 26% developed nosocomial pneumonia. It was observed that the infected patients were significantly older than the noninfected (43+15 vs 22+18 years; p<0.001), had a longer NICU stay (33+31 vs 18+18 days: p=0.05) and needed longer duration of mechanical ventilation (20+25 vs 9 + 12 days: P<0.05). Patients with neuromuscular diseases had a trend towards higher incidence of NP than those with encephalopathy and therapeutic interventions such as plasmapheresis, blood transfusion and inotropic therapy did not influence the incidence of nosocomial pneumonia. The NICU mortality was not significantly influenced by nosocomial pneumonia. Pseudomonas aerugenosa was the predominant organism responsible for pneumonia. Nine percent of the tracheobronchial isolates were resistant to the routinely-tested antibiotics. In conclusion, nosocornial pneumonia is a common complication in a NICU and while it increases the duration of NICU stay, mortality appears to be uninfluenced