PIAC Case Series
ANSWERS
Case 06 - Terry, 5 Years Old
Terry is a 5 y/o hospitalized with severe trauma due to MVA. He is diagnosed with VAP (ventilator-associated pneumonia) on hospital day 5.
Questions
1) What are the likely organisms?
Answers
Likely organisms depend in part on length of stay prior to onset
- Early onset consider - strep pneumo, hemophilus, MSSA
- Late onset
1. Pseudomonas<br />2. Staph aureus (MSSA or MRSA)<br />3. Enterobacter/Klebsiella
Questions
2) What are the measures in ventilator bundle for prevention of VAP?
Answers
Components in bundle to prevent VAP are
- Head of bed elevation
- Oral cares with chlorhexidine
- Daily sedation vacation/assessment of readiness to extubate
- Closed suction system, ETT with subglottic suctioning
Questions
3) What are some principles of antimicrobial therapy for VAP?
Answer
Principles of antimicrobial therapy for VAP include:
1. identify the pathogen
- Bronch brush specimens or tracheal aspirates for gm stain and culture, while not perfect often do identify the pathogen
- Remember, sputum is NOT a sterile body fluid and oro-pharyngeal colonizing flora may be present. For example, candida in these cultures is causing mucosal colonization, not pneumonia.
2. use maximal dose antibiotic with good lung penetration/activity
- For example - aminoglycosides have poor lung penetration and daptomycin is INACTIVE in the lung
3. general length of therapy = 7 - 8 days . Some host settings will require longer therapy - ie, structural lung disease, necrotizing infection.