Hospital-acquired pneumonia in Europe.

T he appropriate management and prevention of hospitalacquired pneumonia (HAP) remain major medical challenges. Much work has been done in this field in the last two decades, which has been constantly summarised in several extensive reviews [1–6]. Unsurprisingly, many issues regarding diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HAP continue to be highly controversial. Some issues have recently only begun to attract the attention they deserve, e.g. the impact of distinct surgical settings and the relationship between tracheostomy and pneumonia, as well as bronchitis and pneumonia. Finally, the alarming worldwide increase in microbial resistance forces us to redefine strategies of targeted and effective antimicrobial treatment [7].