Early Coagulopathy is Associated With Increased Incidence of Ventilator-Associated Events Among Burn Patients.

OBJECTIVE

Coagulopathy is known to be associated with burn injury. Our group has shown that, in spinal cord injury patients, coagulopathy is associated with an increase in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). We hypothesized that the same association exists between coagulopathic burn patients and ventilator-associated events.

METHODS

Patients admitted for burn care between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015 who required mechanical ventilation were included in the study. Ventilator-associated events (VAEs) as defined by the Center for Disease Control were categorized as no event, ventilator-associated condition, infection-related ventilator-associated complication, and possible VAP. Demographic, injury characteristics were compared among four international normalized ratio (INR) categories using analysis of variance and chi-square tests.

RESULTS

Four hundred four patients were admitted for burn care, of whom 263 met the inclusion criteria. One hundred eleven had normal INR, 59 had a slightly elevated INR (1.2-1.4), 33 had a moderately elevated INR (1.4-1.6), and 60 had a severely elevated INR (>1.6). Those with moderately and severely elevated INR were ventilated for a longer period (P = 0.0034), had more days in the ICU (P = 0.0010), and had longer hospital stay (P = 0.0016). After adjusting for inhalation injury and total body surface area, patients with severely elevated INR were over four times as likely to have any VAE (OR: 4.16, 95% CI: 1.33-13.05) and 4.5 times as likely to develop infection-related ventilator-associated complication or possible ventilator-associated pneumonia combined (OR: 4.59, 1.35-15.67).

CONCLUSIONS

Early coagulopathy is associated with a significantly increased incidence of VAEs in burn patients. While additional studies need to be conducted to verify these findings, early recognition and treatment could decrease VAEs.