Burn patients with infection-related ventilator associated complications have worse outcomes compared to those without ventilator associated events

Abstract

Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) replaced its definition for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in 2013. The aim of the current study is to compare the outcome of burn patients with ventilator associated events (VAEs).

Methods: Burn patients with at least two days of ventilator support were identified from the registry between 2013 and 2016. Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher's exact tests were utilized for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. A logistic regression was used for the association between VAE and in-hospital mortality.

Results: 243 patients were admitted to our burn center, of whom 208 had no VAE, 8 had a VAC, and 27 had an IVAC or PVAP. There was no difference in hospital length of stay, ICU length of stay and ventilator support days between those with no VAE and a VAC. Those with IVAC-plus had significantly worse outcomes compared to patients with no VAEs.

Conclusions: Burn patients with IVAC-plus had significantly longer hospital and ICU lengths of stay, days on ventilator compared with patients with no VAEs.

Keywords: Burn; Infection-related ventilator associated complication; Ventilator associated condition.