Survey of the Complications and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Two Groups with and without Traumatic Brain Injury Admitted to ICU

Aims: The current study surveyed and compared the complications and clinical outcomes in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients with and without traumatic brain injury admitted to ICU.
Methods: This is a prospective cohort study which was carried out in Nov 2012-Nov 2013 in the ICU ward of Imam Hossein Hospital. The patients over 18 years old, that were developed VAP in the ICU participated in this research. Patients who were hospitalized due to TBI were considered as a group and patients who were hospitalized due to non-TBI were considered as another group. Necessary data were recorded for all patients in both groups. All patients were followed up until hospital discharge. Incidence of death or recovery, incidence of serious complications, length of stay (LOS), duration of intubation and type of microorganisms were recoded and compared between two groups.
Results: In this study 38 patients (81.6% male) in group 1 and 57 patients (54.4% male) in group 2 were surveyed. The mean age of the patients in group 1 (42 years) was significantly less than group 2 (57 years) (P = 0.002). The mean of LOS in ICU for patients of group 1 was 14 days and for patients of group 2 was 32 days ((P<0.001). The sputum culture results in 28 patients (75.7%) of group 1 and in 50 patients (89.3%) of group 2 was positive (P=0.081). Also, the results of blood culture was positive in 5 patients (23.8%) of group 1 and 18 patients (46.2%) of group 2 (P=0.09). The recorded severe complications between the two groups were not significant. In terms of clinical outcome, ICU mortality in group 1 and 2 was 23.7 % and 38.6%, respectively (P = 0.129) and hospital mortality the patients of group 1 was 26 % and in group 2 was %49 (P = 0.116).
Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated that the incidence of complications and clinical outcomes in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia were not significantly different between patients with and without traumatic brain injury.