# 4655
VAP, or Ventilator Associated Pneumonia, is a serious lung infection that occurs in a distressingly high (30%) number of patients who remain on a ventilator for more than 48 hours.
And those that acquire it are at considerable risk of dying (studies suggest between 25% to 50%), while those that recover require much longer time in the ICU.
VAP not only costs thousands of lives each year, it also creates a sizable financial burden for the health care system.
Normally, when combating bacterial infections, we think of antibiotics as the weapon of choice. But some intriguing research has shown that among a small, carefully selected subset of ICU patients, the daily use of Probiotics reduced the incidence of VAP by almost half.
It should be noted that 90% of ICU patients were excluded from this study, and so these findings can’t be considered universally applicable.
The `money quote’ from the press release is:
After almost 5 years, the researchers found that daily use of probiotics not only decreased VAP infections by about 50 percent compared to placebo, but also reduced the amount of antibiotics needed in comparison to placebo-treated patients.
This reduction in antibiotic consumption led to significantly fewer Clostridium difficile infections in patients given probiotics. No side effects attributable to the probiotics were observed.
The study appears in the latest issue of
Here’s the opening to the press release, followed by the abstract.
Probiotic therapy cuts risk of VAP in half for some in ICU
Daily use of probiotics reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in critically ill patients by almost half, according to new research from Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.
The study was published on the American Thoracic Society's Web site ahead of the print edition of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
It is estimated that VAP complicates the care of up to 30 percent of critical care patients receiving mechanical ventilation. "Patients with VAP have increased morbidity, mortality and hospital costs as well as prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital lengths of stay, and increased costs."
"We chose to study probiotics in this context because VAP is increasingly caused by pathogens associated with antimicrobial resistance and the supply of novel antibiotics is essentially nonexistent for the foreseeable future," said Lee E. Morrow, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of medicine at Creighton University and lead author. "The implication is that novel methods of prevention must be our priority."
You can read the abstract here:
Probiotic Prophylaxis of Ventilator-associated Pneumonia: A Blinded, Randomized, Controlled Trial
Lee E. Morrow1*, Marin H. Kollef2, and Thomas B Casale3
<SNIP>
Conclusions: These pilot data suggest that Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG is safe and efficacious in preventing VAP in a select, high-risk ICU population. Clinical Trials Registry Information: ID#NCT00613795 registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov
Although considered `natural’ and `healthy’ by most people (and available over the counter), probiotics have been linked to rare, but potentially harmful side effects.
Still, this is a fascinating study that will hopefully expand our knowledge of how and why VAP occurs, and ways to prevent it.
