Update on infections in ICU patients

Abstract

Studies carried out in 2006 on severe community-acquired pneumonia or nosocomial pneumonia requiring admission to the ICU are numerous and of a high quality. Among studies of community-acquired pneumonia, the most relevant are those focused on the development and evaluation of systems for the identification of patients with severe pneumonia, analysis of the impact of the initial inflammatory response on the course of the disease, and level of adherence to therapeutic guidelines proposed by different scientific societies. Among studies of nosocomial pneumonia, those involving ventilator-associated pneumonia and health care-associated pneumonia should be emphasized. The reliability of different respiratory sampling methods for the etiological diagnosis of pneumonia, the impact of different etiological agents, and the efficacy of prophylactic measures have been the object of different investigations. Important aspects of these studies include the assessment of different strategies in the use of antimicrobial agents to decrease the selection of multiresistant pathogens. Moreover, early identification of patients at risk of invasive fungal infections, as well as preemptive treatment of these infections in selected patients have been topics of increasing interest.