Performance of Existing Definitions and Tests for the Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Diseases other than Invasive Candidiasis and Invasive Aspergillosis in Critically Ill, Adult Patients: A Systematic Review with Qualitative Evidence Synthesis

Diagnòstic; Malalties fúngiques invasores; PneumocystisDiagnóstico; Enfermedades fúngicas invasivas; PneumocystisDiagnosis; Invasive fungal diseases; PneumocystisThe Fungal Infections Definitions in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients (FUNDICU) project aims to provide standard sets of definitions for invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) in critically ill, adult patients, including invasive aspergillosis (IA), invasive candidiasis (IC), Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP), and other non-IA, non-IC IFDs. The first step of the project was the conduction of separated systematic reviews of the characteristics and applicability to critically ill, adult patients outside classical populations at risk (hematology patients, solid organ transplant recipients) of available definitions and diagnostic tests for IFDs. We report here the results of two systematic reviews exploring the performance of available definitions and tests, for PJP and for other non-IA, non-IC IFDs. Starting from 2585 and 4584 records for PJP and other IFDs, respectively, 89 and 61 studies were deemed as eligible for full-text evaluation. However, only two studies for PJP and no studies for other IFDs met the FUNDICU protocol criteria for inclusion in qualitative synthesis. Currently, there is no sufficient solid data for directly evaluating the performance of existing definitions and laboratory tests for the diagnosis of PJP and other non-IA, non-IC IFDs in critically ill adult patients outside classical populations at risk.The present project did not require additional funding from routine research activities. Costs for open-access publications were covered by research funds of the main authors

Prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia through care bundles: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hospital-acquired pneumonia; Prevention; Quality improvement interventionNeumonía adquirida en el hospital; Prevención; Intervención de mejora de la calidadPneumònia adquirida a l'hospital; Prevenció; Intervenció de millorar de la qualitatBackground Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) represents a common hospital-acquired infection among mechanically ventilated patients. We summarized evidence concerning ventilator care bundles to prevent VAP. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed. Randomized controlled trials and controlled observational studies of adults undergoing mechanical ventilation (MV) for at least 48 h were considered for inclusion. Outcomes of interest were the number of VAP episodes, duration of MV, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and mortality. A systematic search was conducted in the MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science between 1985 and 2022. Results are reported as odds ratio (OR) or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The PROSPERO registration number is CRD42022341780. Results Thirty-six studies including 116,873 MV participants met the inclusion criteria. A total of 84,031 participants underwent care bundles for VAP prevention. The most reported component of the ventilator bundle was head-of-bed elevation (n=83,146), followed by oral care (n=80,787). A reduction in the number of VAP episodes was observed among those receiving ventilator care bundles, compared with the non-care bundle group (OR=0.42, 95% CI: 0.33, 0.54). Additionally, the implementation of care bundles decreased the duration of MV (MD=−0.59, 95% CI: −1.03, −0.15) and hospital length of stay (MD=−1.24, 95% CI: −2.30, −0.18) in studies where educational activities were part of the bundle. Data regarding mortality were inconclusive. Conclusions The implementation of ventilator care bundles reduced the number of VAP episodes and the duration of MV in adult ICUs. Their application in combination with educational activities seemed to improve clinical outcomes.This work was supported by CIBERES, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain (grant number: Fondos FEDER: CB06-06-036)