Isolated Pattern of Microorganism among Pediatric Patients with Ventilator-associated Pneumonia (VAP) in a Tertiary Care Hospital Karachi

Background: The Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common condition with inflammation of lungs. The patients on mechanical ventilation or artificial breathings for 48 to 72 hours tend to developed this condition., which is a type of Nosocomial Pneumonia.

Objective: To assess the causative agent and treatment pattern among the patients suffering from ventilator associated pneumonia.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted for the period of 8 months at a tertiary health care setup of the Karachi Pakistan among the patient’s with VAP. Total of 72 patients with confirmed diagnosis of VAP were included in the study. Data was collected from the children intensive care units on a structed questionnaire. The required variables were obtained from the patients files/Records after the ethical approval was obtained before the collection of data Results were evaluated using the SPSS version 20.0.

Results: The study found out that the VAP is most type of hospital acquired pneumonia form the health care system., showed 59.8% (n=61) males and 34.3% (n=35) females’ patients with VAP diagnosis. The age group revealed majority of the patients 46.1% (n=47) were 0–1-year-old, 11.8% (n=12) patients were above 2- 3 years old. 18.6% patients (n=19) were >3 years-4years old. The study also assesses ventilators support >48 hours have around 20-30% (Mean 6.9 days CI: 1.16-3.65) chance to develop the VAP. The subsequent effects of VAP shows the two-fold rates of mortality hence requiring the more length of stay at hospital and extra charges.

Conclusion: The VAP occurs among the considerable numbers of patients on the ventilator supports, the findings suggests that an appropriate management, prevention strategies and effective treatment is needed to reduces the mortality and complications of VAP.