Hospital and long-term outcomes of ICU-treated severe community- and hospital-acquired, and ventilator-associated pneumonia patients.

BACKGROUND: Our purpose was to analyse the association of pneumonia types with hospital and long-term outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU)-treated pneumonia patients.

METHODS: The occurrence of pneumonia was retrospectively evaluated among prospectively registered patients admitted into a mixed university-level ICU during a 14-month period. Their age, severity of underlying disease, malignancy, immunosuppressive therapy and organ dysfunctions were recorded, as well as the length of hospital stay and short- and long-term mortalities.

RESULTS: There were 117 severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP), 66 hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and 25 ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) cases among the 817 patients admitted. ICU and hospital mortality did not differ between pneumonia groups. VAP and HAP patients had more malignant underlying diseases than SCAP patients (P < 0.001). HAP patients were older than SCAP and VAP patients (P = 0.023). The admission Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores did not differ between the groups (P > 0.90). The patients with VAP had higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment maximum scores compared with patients with SCAP and HAP (P < 0.001). In an adjusted multivariate logistic regression model, there were no significant differences in odds ratios for hospital mortality between the three pneumonia types. Mortality among the hospital survivors during the 12-month follow-up period was 18% (16/89) in the SCAP group, 35% (18/51) in the HAP group and 41% (7/17) in the VAP group (P = 0.023).

CONCLUSION: The type of pneumonia (i.e. SCAP, HAP or VAP) had no significant association with hospital mortality, whereas the SCAP patients had the lowest 1-year mortality.