Abstract
Background The goal of this study was to assess risk factors of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.Methods. We conducted a monocenter retrospective study comparing the prevalence of VAP and invasive aspergillosis between patients with COVID-19 related acute respiratory distress syndrome (C-ARDS) and those with non-SARS-CoV-2 viral ARDS (NC-ARDS).Results. We assessed 90 C-ARDS and 82 NC-ARDS patients, who were mechanically ventilated for more than 48 hours. At ICU admission, there were significantly fewer bacterial coinfections documented in C-ARDS than in NC-ARDS: 14 (16%) vs 38 (48%), p<0.01. Conversely, significantly more patients developed at least one VAP episode in C-ARDS as compared with NC-ARDS : 58 (64%) vs. 36 (44%), p=0.007. The probability of VAP was significantly higher in C-ARDS after adjusting on death and ventilator weaning [sub-hazard ratio = 1.72 (1.14-2.52), p<0.01].The prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria (MDR) related VAP was significantly higher in C-ARDS than in NC-ARDS: 21 (23%) vs. 9 (11%), p=0.03. Carbapenem was more used in C-ARDS than in NC-ARDS: 48 (53%), vs 21 (26%), p<0.01. According to AspICU algorithm, there were fewer cases of putative aspergillosis in C-ARDS than in NC-ARDS [2 (2%) vs. 12 (15%), p=0.003], but there was no difference in Aspergillus colonization.Conclusions. In this retrospective case-control study, we evidenced a higher prevalence of VAP and MDR-VAP in C-ARDS than in NC-ARDS, and a lower risk for invasive aspergillosis in the former group.