• Tim Kobes, SmeeingDiederik P JDPJ0000-0002-4895-9806Department of Surgery, Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, The Netherlands.Department of Trauma Surgery, St Antonius Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands., Falco Hietbrink, Kim E M Benders, R Marijn Houwert, and Mark P C M van Baal.
• Department of Trauma Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, PO Box 85500, 3508GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands. t.kobes-2@umcutrecht.nl.
• Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2024 Mar 28.

PurposeWhat are reported definitions of HAP in trauma patient research?MethodsA systematic review was performed using the PubMed/MEDLINE database. We included all English, Dutch, and German original research papers in adult trauma patients reporting diagnostic criteria for hospital-acquired pneumonia diagnosis. The risk of bias was assessed using the MINORS criteria.ResultsForty-six out of 5749 non-duplicate studies were included. Forty-seven unique criteria were reported and divided into five categories: clinical, laboratory, microbiological, radiologic, and miscellaneous. Eighteen studies used 33 unique guideline criteria; 28 studies used 36 unique non-guideline criteria.ConclusionClinical criteria for diagnosing HAP-both guideline and non-guideline-are widespread with no clear consensus, leading to restrictions in adequately comparing the available literature on HAP in trauma patients. Studies should at least report how a diagnosis was made, but preferably, they would use pre-defined guideline criteria for pneumonia diagnosis in a research setting. Ideally, one internationally accepted set of criteria is used to diagnose hospital-acquired pneumonia.Level Of EvidenceLevel III.© 2024. The Author(s).

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