Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Children: A Prospective Natural History Study

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials for antibiotics designed to treat hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonias (HABP/VABP) are hampered by difficulty making the diagnosis in a way that is acceptable to FDA and consistent with standards of care. We sought to identify risk factors that predispose children to HABP/VABP and to describe the epidemiology of pediatric HABP/VABP to identify laboratory and clinical features to improve pediatric HABP/VABP clinical trial efficiency. METHODS: We prospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of patients