The New Zealand medical journal
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Severe community acquired pneumonia: a one-year analysis in a tertiary referral intensive care unit.
To define outcomes, characteristics, microbiology and salient prognostic factors of patients admitted to our intensive care unit (ICU) with severe community acquired pneumonia, over a one year period. ⋯ Severe community acquired pneumonia carries a high mortality despite ICU management. Bacterial diagnostic rate was low but made no difference to mortality. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the commonest causative pathogen. The development of septic shock, requirement for mechanical ventilation and bilateral disease are important adverse prognostic indicators.