Definition of severe hospital-acquired

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Definition of severe hospital-acquired pneumonia

Hospital-acquired pneumonia with one or more of the following features:

General	Admission to ICU. New mental confusion.
Chest X-ray	Bilateral or multilobular shadowing or rapidly progressive lung infiltrates
Respiratory failure	Respiratory rate ³ 30/min Hypoxia (PaO₂<8kPa or SaO₂<92% on any FiO2) Need for >35% oxygen to maintain arterial oxygen saturation >90% Need for ventilatory support
Evidence of severe sepsis	Shock (systolic BP <90mmHg or diastolic BP £ 60mmHg)

Notes

The absence of these features would make severe pneumonia unlikely.
However, the features may be present due to underlying disease or other causes eg: sepsis.

Page last edited: 30/09/2008

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