Outcomes in patients with community-acquired pneumonia admitted to the intensive care unit

Rodrigo Cavallazzie， Timothy Wiemkene， Forest W. Arnolde， Carlos M. Lunae， Jose Bordone， Robert Kelleye， Charles Feldmane， James D. Chalmerse， Antoni Torrese， Julio Ramireze

Introduction

Severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) portends a serious prognosis. The temporal trend in outcome of severe CAP is not well established. We evaluated the temporal trends in the outcomes of severe CAP.

Methods

This is a secondary analysis of 800 patients with severe CAP enrolled in the Community-Acquired Pneumonia Organization International Cohort. Severe CAP was defined as CAP requiring admission to the intensive care unit. Only patients admitted to the ICU upon hospital admission were included in this study. We assessed the trend in outcomes of these patients during three time periods: Period I (June 2001 to April 2004), Period II (May 2004 to January 31 2008), and Period III (February 2008 to February 2013).

Results

After adjustment for other variables, mortality was higher for patients admitted during Period II compared with Period I (RR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.002 to 2.14; P value = 0.049), and for Period III compared with Period I (RR: 1.70; 95% CI: 1.15 to 2.50; P value = 0.008). No significant difference in length of stay or time to clinical stability was found among the three periods.

Conclusion

The mortality of patients with severe CAP increased over time in our study population. This finding has important health policy implications if confirmed by other studies.

respiratory medicine

June 2015Volume 109, Issue 6, Pages 743–750

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2015.04.007 |