A five year audit of ventilator-associated pneumonia: trends, organisms, antibiotic therapy and admission specialties

Introduction Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) occurs greater than 48 hours following endotracheal intubation and is a clinical diagnosis with no gold standard diagnostic criterion. The Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS) is a tool used to aid diagnosis and comprises a clinical score of 0-12 based on 6 variables: body temperature, leukocyte count, volume and character of tracheal secretions, arterial oxygenation, chest radiograph findings and results of culture of tracheal aspirates. A score of ≥ 6 has been shown to correlate with the presence of VAP with high sensitivity although low specificity [1].