Chest
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Chest
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Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a frequent complication of prolonged invasive ventilation. Because VAP is largely preventable, its incidence has been used as an index of quality of care in the ICU. However, the incidence of VAP varies according to which criteria are used to identify it. We compared the incidence of VAP obtained with different sets of criteria. ⋯ Applying different diagnostic criteria to the same patient population can result in wide variation in the incidence of VAP. The use of different criteria can also influence the time of diagnosis and the associated mortality rate.