Abstract
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is defined as pneumonia occuring in any period of mechanical ventilation. There is no optimal diagnostic method in current use and in this study we aimed to compare two non-invasive diagnostic methods used in diagnosis of VAP in children. This prospective study was conducted in 8 bedded Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Ege University Children´s Hospital. Endotracheal aspiration (ETA) and non-bronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were performed in case of developing VIP after 48 hours of ventilation. Quantitative cultures were examined in Ege University Department of Diagnostic Microbiology, Bacteriology Laboratory. Fourty-one patients were enrolled in the study. The mean age of study subjects was 47.2±53.6 months. A total of 28 in 82 specimens taken with both methods were negative/negative; 28 had positive result with ETA and a negative result with non-bronchoscopic BAL and both results were negative in 26 specimens. There were no patients whose respiratory specimen culture was negative with ETA and positive with non-bronchoscopic BAL. These results imply that there is a significant difference between two diagnostic methods (p < 0.001). Negative non-bronchoscopic BAL results are recognized as absence of VAP; therefore, ETA results were compared with this method. ETA's sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values were 100%, 50%, 100% and 48% respectively. The study revealed the ease of usability and the sensitivity of non-bronchoscopic BAL, in comparison with ETA.
Copyright and license
Copyright © 2015 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.