Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Aug 2018
Meta AnalysisIncidences of Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Associated Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia within Studies of Respiratory Tract Applications of Polymyxin: Testing the Stoutenbeek Concurrency Postulates.
Regimens containing topical polymyxin appear highly effective at preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) overall and, more so, VAP caused by Gram-negative bacteria. However, Stoutenbeek's postulates that VAP incidences within studies of topical antibiotics depend on the context of whether the component (control and intervention) groups of each study were concurrent versus nonconcurrent remain untested. The literature was searched for concurrent control (CC) versus nonconcurrent control (NCC) designed studies of respiratory tract applications of topical polymyxin to mechanically ventilated (MV) patients that reported incidences of Pseudomonas-associated ventilator-associated pneumonia (PsVAP). ⋯ The mean PsVAP within CC polymyxin control groups (9.9%; CI, 7.6 to 12.8%) is higher than that of all other component group categories. The PsVAP incidences of control and intervention groups of studies of respiratory tract applications of polymyxin are dependent on whether the groups were within a concurrent versus nonconcurrent study. Stoutenbeek's concurrency postulates are validated.