Economic burden of ventilator-associated pneumonia in a developing country

Abstract

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) developed in 96 (60%) of 159 patients with 37.2 cases per 1000 ventilation-days in a medical intensive care unit (MICU). Median time for VAP development was 5.5 days (range: 2-25). The most significant risk factors for VAP were stay in hospital before MICU and length of stay in MICU. The mean length of stay in MICU for VAP patients was 23.8 ± 19.8 days, which was four-fold higher than for non-VAP patients. The daily cost for VAP patients was half that for non-VAP patients. The total costs for VAP patients were about three-fold higher than for non-VAP patients.