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Introduction: Ventilator-associated pneumonias (VAPs) are a complication of mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU) that increase length of stay, morbidity, and mortality. While identifying and treating infections early is paramount to improving patient outcomes, more and more data demonstrate limited courses of antibiotics improve outcomes. Prolonged (10–14 day) courses of antibiotics have remained the standard of care for pneumonia due to gram-negative bacilli (GNR). We aimed to review our GNR VAPs to assess risk factors for recurrent GNR infections. Methods: We reviewed trauma patients who developed VAP from 02/2019 through 05/2022. Demographics, injury characteristics, and outcomes were reviewed with a focus on pneumonia details including the cultured pathogen(s), antibiotic(s) used, treatment duration, and presence of recurrent infections. We then compared single episode VAPs to multiple episode VAPs among patients infected by GNRs. Results: Eleven of the fifty trauma patients admitted to the ICU suffered a VAP caused by a GNR. Of these eleven patients, six experienced a recurrent infection, four of which were caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and two of which were caused by Enterobacter aerogenes. Among the patients who received ten days of antibiotic treatment, half suffered a recurrence. Although, there was no difference in the microbiology or antibiotic duration between the recurrences and single episodes. Conclusion: Despite prolonged use of antibiotics, we found that the risk of recurrent or persistent infections was high among patients with VAP due to GNB. Further study is needed to determine optimal treatment to minimize the risk of these recurrences. Key message: Ventilator-associated pneumonia due to gram-negative bacilli is a rare but high morbidity complication in intensive care units. Despite prolonged duration of therapy, these infections still appear to account for many recurrent infections and further study into optimal therapy is warranted.

Background: Delta neutrophil index (DNI) has been reported to be useful in the diagnosis of sepsis. We evaluated the role of DNI for differentiating true bacteremia from blood contamination and compared the DNI value with previously validated markers such as procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP)., Methods: The blood culture positive group was subdivided into true bacteremia (n=199) and contamination (n=158). The blood cultures were incubated in the BacT/Alert 3D (bioMérieux, Marcyl'Etoile, France) and BACTEC FX (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD, USA) systems for 5days. Data of complete blood cell count were collected from an automatic cell analyzer (ADVIA2120 Hematology System, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics) to calculate DNI., Results: Concentrations for DNI, PCT, and CRP were significantly higher in the true bacteremia group. When the gram-positive and gram-negative infections were compared among true bacteremia, only PCT was increased significantly in GNB bacteremia. DNI levels were well correlated with PCT (r=0.564, P<0.0001) and CRP (r=0.344, P<0.001) using the Spearman test among the culture positive bacteremia. The area under the ROC curve was 0.75 for PCT, 0.69 for CRP, and 0.69 for DNI., Conclusions: We demonstrated the usefulness of DNI in differentiating true bacteremia from contamination in patients with a positive blood culture., (© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)