Risk factors and outcomes of ventilator-associated pneumonia in COVID-19 patients: a propensity score matched analysis

Ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically-ill patients with COVID-19 in a setting of selective decontamination of the digestive tract

“…The main limitation of this single center observational study is the lack of a control group receiving no SDD, therefore a causal relationship between the use of SDD and the incidence of VAP cannot be established. Demographics, treatments and outcomes between patients described in this report and previous literature are similar, however major differences are the use of SDD and the incidence of VAP [ 1 – 3 ]. In support of our data, a recently published observational study, suggests a strong mortality benefit of SDD, although the incidence of VAP was not reported [ 6 ].…”

“…The observed low VAP incidence of 10%, occurred despite the fact that 96% of the patients were mechanically ventilated for more than 5 days. This incidence is in contrast with aforementioned high rates of 40–58% [ 1 ]. 62% of patients received steroids during ICU admission, the percentage of VAP was not higher compared to patients not receiving steroids (11% vs 9.6%).…”

“…In mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19 high incidences of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) have been reported ranging from 40 to 58% [ 1 , 2 ]. This occurred despite judicious use of systemic antibiotics at ICU-admission, preventive measures and in healthcare systems with more than adequate staffing resources [ 3 ].…”

Corticosteroids and RCTs against the supposed undervaluation of real data evidence

“…Late complications, as well as medium-term evolution, were not evaluated in the RECOVERY study [2]. A recent research letter [4] found that corticosteroid use, and tocilizumab treatment were associated with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).…”

Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia/Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia and Ventilator-Associated Tracheobronchitis in COVID-19

“…However, several subsequent studies reported higher incidence of HAP and VAP in critically ill COVID-19 patients. 4,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The majority of these studies had major limitations, including retrospective design, absence of control group, small number of included patients, no adjustment for confounders or competing risk, and unclear infection definition.…”