Risk factors of ventilator associated pneumonia in aged patients: A meta-analysis

Objective To reveal implications for clinical practice through systematically reviewing the risk factors of ventilatorassociated pneumonia (VAP) in aged patients. Methods A literature search was conducted in PubMed (87), Embase (180), CNKI (23) and WanFang (23) databases.Data, including prevalence, etiology, risk factors, or clinical outcomes were extracted for systematic review and meta-analysis.Meta-analysis was carried out using software stata 14.0. Results Total of 213 domestic and foreign literatures were included in this study, and 12 studies including 1 566 cases with VAP met the inclusion criteria.Of the 1 566 cases, 695 patients had VAP and 871 cases had no VAP.Ten variables as independent risk factors were identified for the development of VAP: gender, duration of ventilation, acute physiology and chronic health evaluationⅡ (APACHEⅡ ) score, pollution of the breathing circuit, supine position, gastric reflux and aspiration, coma, tracheotomy, acid-suppressive agent and other chronic respiratory diseases. Conclusion Specific methods of preventions should be taken in the light of risk factors of VAP in aged patients so as to decrease the morbidity and mortality.