Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP)

Pneumonia is a serious lung infection. Patients who need assistance breathing with a mechanical ventilator for more than 48 hours are at increased risk of developing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Patients who are on a ventilator for more than five days, who are residents of a nursing home, or who have been hospitalized or have taken antibiotics within the last 90 days are at the greatest risk.

Symptoms of VAP include fever, low body temperature, foul-smelling mucous or phlegm coughed up from the lungs or airway, and hypoxia, a condition in which the body's blood oxygen levels are low.

VAP can be prevented through frequent hand washing using soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer, by keeping the patient's head elevated at 30 to 45 degrees, and by taking patients off mechanical ventilation as soon as possible.

For more information on VAP, please see the Province of Ontario fact sheet.

The Heart Institute's VAP infection rates are available here (pdf).