[Clinical analysis of patients with severe pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation]

To clarify the clinical features and select the appropriate antibiotic therapy for patients with severe pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation, we performed a clinical analysis of 65 patients with this condition. The following results were obtained. The majority of the patients were elderly males, whose performance status was poor (PS 2.2) and who had an underying disease. Abnormal physical signs included tachypnea, tachycardia and consciousness disturbance. Abnormal laboratory findings included hypoalbuminemia, and liver and renal dysfunction. The causative microorganisms were isolated from half of these patients. A number of antibiotics were administered and steroid pulse therapy was also performed for half of these patients. Nevertheless the prognosis was poor because the percentage of deaths was high (50.8%).