Ying-Tang Fang*, Hsu-Ching Kao*, Chi-Han Huang*, Kuo-Tung Huang*,**,

Chin-Chou Wang*,**,***, Yi-Hsi Wang*,**,***, Meng-Chih Lin*,**,***,

Wen-Feng Fang*,**,***

Introduction: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed new surveillance criteria called ventilator-associated conditions (VAC) or ventilator-associated events (VAE) to replace the ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) surveillance criteria.

According to initial clinical observations of patients with severe sepsis, the patient group with VAC seemed to have a worse prognosis than the patient group without VAC. Our hypothesis was that among ventilated patients with severe sepsis, those patients who develop VAC would have greater morbidity and a higher mortality rate than patients without VAC. For the purpose of prevention, early diagnosis and early intervention, a better understanding of the risk factors and associated outcomes of the VAC patient group is necessary.

Methods: A total of 216 ventilated patients with severe sepsis were assessed from August 2013 to February 2015. Demographic variables, laboratory results and physiologic variables were collected prospectively. Retrospective data analysis was performed for these patients throughout their hospitalization.

Results: Males were more predominant among patients with VAC than among those without VAC in our study. Day 7 CRP and Day 7 PaO2/FiO2 were significant risk factors for VAC in a multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis. Patients with VAC had higher rates of mortality and morbidity than non-VAC patients.

Conclusions: Patients with VAC have worse outcomes. Day 7 CRP and PaO2/FiO2 are useful predictors for VAC development. These findings, however, should be validated in prospective studies.