Pneumonia and mechanic ventilation- one-year study (2006-2007) at the Specialized Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

The functional stability of the lung presents a tight relation with the proper defense mechanisms of its structure. When these mechanisms get deteriorated they cause the infections leading to pneumonias, including those associated to the mechanical ventilation. The objective of this work was valuing the behavior of those pneumonias associated to ventilation as an indicator of health care quality. We carried out a descriptive-transversal study, using the EPIDAT method, with a sample of 130 patients from a universe of 1930 patients attended at the Specialized Intensive Care Unit of the Surgical Clinical Hospital of Matanzas in the period from January 2006 to December 2007. To obtain the primary data all the clinical histories were reviewed and a and a form was designed collecting the following data: age, sex, affections leading to the ventilation, mobilization of the patient according to the disease, time of the symptoms beginning and evolution of the pneumonias. We found that 23 patients between 60 and 65 years old (25.5 %) were the most vulnerable for presenting pneumonia associated to mechanical ventilation. The male sex was predominant with 22 patients representing 24.4 % of the entities in which the mechanical ventilation was indicated. The polytrauma and the crania-encephalic traumas were the most representative ones (83.3 %). These patients were sent to Polyvalent Intensive Care Units. The symptoms of this disease appeared in a period of 24 to 48 hours in 11 patients (8.4 %) and 40 patients developed the disease in a term of 4 to 6 days when the staying of these cases at the service increased because of the absence of beds in the emergency units.