STATISTICS ON VAP
Ventilator-associated pneumonia is defined as pneumonia
that develops in a patient intubated and ventilated at the
time of or within 48 hours before the onset of the event. 1
Specifically, early onset VAP occurs within 48 to 96 hours
after intubation. Ventilator-associated pneumonia rates
range from 10% to 22% among mechanically ventilated
ICU patients 5,8
and has significant impact on patient mortality,
LOS, and hospital costs. 2-7 Mortality rates among
patients diagnosed with VAP range from 27% to 43%. 17
Ventilator-associated pneumonia increases ICU LOS 5 to 7
days 5
and hospital LOS 2 to 3 days. 4
As a result, estimated
costs for treating VAP range from $9000 to $40 000 per patient,
6,9,13 totaling more than 1.2 billion dollars per year.