Impact of BAL Data on the Therapy and Outcome of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Patients with a strong clinical suspicion of VAP have a high mortality rate, regardless of whether BAL cultures confirm the clinical diagnosis of VAP. When adequate antibiotic therapy is initiated very early (ie, before performing bronchoscopy), mortality rate is reduced if this empiric therapy is adequate, compared to when this therapy is inadequate or no therapy is given. If adequate therapy is delayed until bronchoscopy is performed or until BAL results are known, mortality is higher than if it had been given at the time of first establishing a clinical diagnosis of VAP. When patients were changed from inadequate antibiotic therapy to adequate therapy, based on the results of BAL, mortality was comparable to those who continued to receive inadequate therapy. Thus, even if bronchoscopy can accurately define the microbial etiology of VAP, this information becomes available too late to influence survival.