Cost analysis of ventilator-associated pneumonia in Turkish medical-surgical intensive care units.

A study was carried out to assess treatment success and the overall costs of patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). In a prospective case control study, data were collected from 25 intensive care unit (ICU) beds. A total of 162 ICU patients who required mechanical ventilation were assessed. Of these, 81 patients were diagnosed with VAP and the other 81 were controls (without VAP). Risk of mortality was analyzed and total cost of care was recorded. Age, sex and underlying disease were similar between the groups. The mean length of stay (LOS) in the ICUs in the VAP cases (15.7±9.1 days) exceeded that of the controls (4.9±4.9 days) (p 0.0001), and the additional LOS attributable to VAP was estimated at 10.8 days. In the VAP group, 25 patients had early-onset VAP, and the other 56 patients had late-onset VAP. Mortality rates were higher in VAP patients (32%) than controls (19.7%) p 0.05). Total costs were USD 8602.7±5045.5 in the VAP group and USD 2621.9±2053.3 in controls. The additional cost for VAP was found to be USD 5980 per patient. These data suggest that morbidity, mortality, ICU length of stay and costs increase with VAP. The additional costs for VAP are especially based on the use of novel and expensive antibiotics, other drugs, and medical material.