Risk factors for mortality in intensive care unit patients with pneumonia in South Korea

Background Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has been increasingly recognized as an opportunistic pathogen associated with high morbidity and mortality. Data on the prognostic factors associated with S. maltophilia pneumonia in patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) are lacking. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from 117 patients with S. maltophilia pneumonia admitted to the ICUs of two tertiary referral hospitals in South Korea between January 2011 and December 2022. To assess risk factors associated with in-hospital mortality, multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. Results The median age of the study population was 71 years. Ventilator-associated pneumonia was 76.1% of cases, and the median length of ICU stay before the first isolation of S. maltophilia was 15 days. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 82.1%, and factors independently associated with mortality were age (odds ratio [OR], 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00–1.09; P=0.046), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score (OR, 1.21; 95%; CI, 1.02–1.43; P=0.025), corticosteroid use (OR, 4.19; 95% CI, 1.26–13.91; P=0.019), and polymicrobial infection (OR, 0.22; P=0.009). However, the impact of appropriate antibiotic therapy on mortality was insignificant. In a subgroup of patients who received appropriate antibiotic therapy (n=58), antibiotic treatment modality-related variables, including combination or empirical therapy, also showed no significant association with survival. Conclusions Patients with S. maltophilia pneumonia in ICU have high mortality rates. Older age, higher SOFA score, and corticosteroid use were independently associated with increased in-hospital mortality, whereas polymicrobial infection was associated with lower mortality. The effect of appropriate antibiotic therapy on prognosis was insignificant.