Nosocomial Pneumonia

Excerpt

Nosocomial pneumonia or hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) is defined as pneumonia that occurs 48 hours or more after hospital admission and is not present at the admission time. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) represents a significant sub-set of HAP occurring in intensive care units (ICUs) and is defined as pneumonia that occurs more than 48 to 72 hours after tracheal intubation and is thought to affect 10% to 20% of patients receiving mechanical ventilation for more than 48 hours.