Study Links Oral Bacteria and VAP

Every day in emergency rooms across America, hospital staff must insert plastic ventilation tubes into the airways of their sick or severely injured patients to keep them breathing. Unfortunately for those who have the tubes in place for 48 hours or longer, at least one in 10 will develop a bacterial infection in their lungs. In some cases, the resulting pneumonia will prove fatal. In others, the infection – known as ventilator-associated pneumonia, or VAP - will prolong the patient’s hospital stay from two weeks to a month on average, often resulting in extra hospital fees of $40,000 or more.

For complete article: http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/Research/ResearchResults/ScienceBriefs/Archive/archive2008/December/VAP.htm