Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) are significant causes of morbidity and mortality for hospitalized patients.¹ Of all nosocomial infections, HAP is the leading cause of death and VAP is the most common in the intensive care unit (ICU), accounting for 25% of all infections in that setting.²
 

Most bacterial cases of HAP/VAP (50–80%) are caused by Gram-negative bacteria. In

particular, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and

Escherichia coli are commonly related to HAP, while isolated Acinetobacter baumannii is

commonly reported in VAP patients.²
 

With antibacterial resistance on the rise, pneumonia caused by multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria is growing more common. This is making treatment more complicated and is having a detrimental impact on patient outcomes.²


IDENTIFYING PATIENTS AT RISK
 

It is vital to identify your HAP/VAP patients at risk of multi-drug resistance, from the onset of

infection.³ In 2016, the IDSA (Infectious Diseases Society of America) and the ATS (American

Thoracic Society) published clinical practice guidelines for the management of these patients, which included risk factors for developing multi-drug resistant forms of each condition:⁴

In 2018, ERS, ESICM, ESCMID, and ALAT published clinical guidelines for therapeutic and management strategies for HAP and VAP, outside of multi-drug resistant forms.⁵