Epidemiology and clinical outcome of ventilator-associated events at a tertiary care hospital from North India.

The aim of our study was to determine the incidence, microbiological profile, risk factors and outcomes of patients diagnosed with ventilator-associated events in our tertiary care hospital. In this prospective study, intensive care patients put on mechanical ventilation for >48 h were enrolled and monitored daily for ventilator-associated event according to Disease Centre Control guidelines. A ventilator-associated event developed in 33/250 (13.2%); its incidence was 3.5/100 mechanical ventilation days. The device utilisation rate was 0.86, 36.4% of patients had early and 63.6% late-onset ventilator-associated pneumonia whose most common causative pathogen was Acinetobacter sp. (63.6%). Various factors were significantly associated with a ventilator-associated event: male gender, COPD, smoking, >2 underlying diseases, chronic kidney disease and elevated acute physiological and chronic health evaluation II scores. Therefore, stringent implementation of infection control measures is necessary to control ventilator-associated pneumonia in critical care units.