Epidemiology and outcomes of ventilator-associated events in critically ill children: Evaluation of three different definitions.

Objective: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs), but its definite diagnosis remains controversial. The CDC Ventilator-Associated Event (VAE) module (validated in adults) constitutes a new approach for VAP surveillance.

Design: We described epidemiological characteristics of PICU VAE cases, investigated possible risk factors, and evaluated 3 different sets of diagnostic VAE criteria.