Evaluating causative agents, mortality factors, and laboratory data of hospital-acquired pneumonia patients

In the recent years, the increase in death rates from nosocomial pneumonia draws attention. The aim of this study was to examine the causative agents and mortality factors of patients with pneumonia who were followed up in the chest diseases intensive care unit.

Data of 1070 patients with pneumonia were screened for this study. A total of 160 patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia included in this study. The relationship between factors such as patients' comorbidities, length of stay in the intensive care unit, history of hospitalization or respiratory support therapy, infection markers such as C-reactive protein, white blood cell, nutritional markers such as albumin and protein, renal and liver function tests, culture growing microorganisms, and clinical pulmonary infection scores was evaluated and mortality rates were examined.

Among 1070 patients, the rate of hospital-acquired pneumonia was 14.9%, and the mortality rate of pneumonia was 16.9%. Mortality was significantly increased in patients who stayed in the intensive care unit for more than 10 days, in patients with a clinical pulmonary infection score of ≥6 and with a history of hospitalization in the past one month, and received invasive mechanical ventilation therapy. Mortality increased in patients with hypoalbuminemia, hypoproteinemia, and high C-reactive protein values. The most commonly grown microorganism was Acinetobacter baumannii, which was also found significantly in patients who underwent invasive mechanical ventilation.

In the clinical approach to hospital-acquired pneumonia, in order to prevent mortalities, it is important to reveal whether the newly emerging symptoms and signs are related to pneumonia, to identify the causative pathogen, and to determine the severity of the disease.