Diagnosing ventilator-associated pneumonia in pediatric intensive care

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's criteria were applied by independent investigators for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) diagnosis in critically ill children and compared with tracheal aspirate cultures (TACs). In addition, correlation between antibiotic use, VAP incidence, and epidemiology of TACs was investigated. A modest agreement (κ = 0.41) was found on radiologic findings between 2 investigators. VAP incidence was 7.7 episodes per 1,000 ventilator days, but positive TACs were the most significant factor for driving high antimicrobial usage in the pediatric intensive care unit.