• Vikas Pathak, Iliana Samara Hurtado Rendon, Shebli Atrash, Vinay Prasad Rao Gagadam, Kaushik Bhunia, Syam Prasad Mallampalli, Vijay Vegesna, Mahesh Mani Dangal, and Ronald L Ciubotaru.
• Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 130 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. drvikaspathak@gmail.com
• Clin Med Res. 2012 May 1; 10 (2): 57-64.

BackgroundMechanical ventilation (MV) is a predictor of mortality in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the intensive care unit (ICU). Patients with HIV-infections are admitted to the ICU for a variety of reasons that frequently require intubation. While survival rates for HIV-infected patients continue to improve, ICU admission rates have remained consistent.MethodsTo observe the consequences of MV in HIV-infected patients, we conducted a retrospective chart review on patients with HIV (n=55) vs. matched HIV-negative patients (n=55) who required MV over a one-year period and compared the groups for differences in outcome and complications.ResultsThe HIV group had twice the number of deaths (44% vs. 22%, all-cause mortality) (P=0.01). Among the HIV-positive group, 5 of 55 patients required tracheostomy and prolonged MV, compared to 15 of 55 in the control group (9% and 27%, respectively). Successful extubation was virtually identical (47% MV vs. 50% control). Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) was significantly higher among HIV-positive cases (39 of 55 HIV vs. 14 of 55 non-HIV) (P=0.05). Regression analysis revealed that hypotension, hypoalbuminemia, and fever predicted a poorer outcome. Low CD4 cell counts were strongly associated with mortality.ConclusionHIV-infected patients requiring MV have significantly higher mortality and VAP rates than HIV-negative patients. Since VAP is associated with a poor prognosis, discovering ways to prevent it in the HIV-infected patient may improve outcome.

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