Is type 2 diabetes mellitus in mechanically ventilated adult trauma patients potentially related to the occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia?

Background: ventilator-associated pneumonia (vap) is a type of lung infection that typically affects critically ill patients undergoing mechanical ventilation (mv) in the intensive care unit (icu). patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (t2dm) are considered to be more susceptible to several types of infections including community-acquired pneumonia. however,it is not clear whether t2dm is a risk factor for the development of vap. the purpose of this study was to determine the risk of vap for diabetic and nondiabetic mechanically ventilated trauma patients. materials and methods: this study is a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study of the history of t2dm in the icu over a period of 1 year at imam khomeini hospital in iran. a total of 186 critically ill trauma patients who required at least 48 h of mv were monitored for the occurrence of vap by their clinical pulmonary infection score (cpis) until icu discharge,vap diagnosis,or death. results: forty-one of the 186 patients developed vap. the median time from hospitalization to vap was 29.09 days (95% ci: 26.27–31.9). the overall incidence of vap was 18.82 cases per 1,000 days of intubation (95% ci: 13.86-25.57). risk of vap in diabetic patients was greater than nondiabetic patients after adjustments for other potential factors [hazard ratio (hr): 10.12 [95% confidence interval (ci): 5.1–20.2); p < 0.0001)]. conclusion: the findings show that t2dm is associated with a significant increase in the occurrence of vap in mechanically ventilated adult trauma patients. © 2016 journal of research in medical sciences.