Aportación del laboratorio de microbiología al diagnóstico de la neumonía asociada a la ventilación mecánica

Given that identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of microorganisms usually takes up to 3 or 4 days, rapid procedures that provide the clinician with useful information are essential. Rapid information, even if partial or less than perfect, is clearly better for the patient than a perfect but delayed report. Gram stain of LRT secretions is an immediate procedure that can guide management and it has a reasonable correlation with culture results. At present, new antibiogram procedures, performed on direct clinical samples, allow presumptive identification and information on susceptibility to commonly used antibiotics in less than 24 hours after sampling. The impact of using this procedure in clinical practice is currently under research.