Incidence of nosocomial pneumonia in ICU patients

: EURO.NIS, is conceived as a multicentric, prospective evaluation of the real incidence of pneumonia in I.C.U.'s all over Western Europe. As one of the 29 Belgian participants in this study, we performed the registration as required by the standard protocol, but also investigated our local incidence of nosocomial pneumonia in more detail. All patients hospitalized in the ICU for more than 24 hours during a survey period of 1 month are included. Recorded at the end of the first 24 hours are sex, year of birth, clinical classification, risk factors, severity score; at discharge from the ICU are recorded: mechanical ventilation and humidification equipment, sedation and relaxation, gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis and SDD, data on pneumonia and outcome; finally three days after discharge are clinical signs of pneumonia and survival status recorded. The overall European incidence rate of pneumonias acquired in the ICU's is 11.8%; the incidence rate in the Belgium ICU's is 10.2% and as for Bruges it is 12.8%. The incidence rate of deaths associated with pneumonia is respectively 3.5%, 3% and 3.2%. These results warrant further study of causes and prevention of nosocomial infections in our ICU.