Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the composition and the temporal evolution of the oropharyngeal microbiome in antibiotic-naïve patients requiring mechanical ventilation and to gain new insights into the pathogenesis of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
Methods: Prospective, observational single-center nested case-control study. Patients with acute critical illness and anticipated duration of mechanical ventilation > 4 days were eligible. We took oropharyngeal swabs (and if available, tracheal secretions) daily, starting at the day of intubation. The microbiota was characterized by 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and compared between patients developing VAP versus controls.
Results: Five patients developed VAP. In three patient the causative pathogens were Enterobacteriaceae and in two Haemophilus influenzae. Locally weighted polynomial regression suggested that the within diversity (=alpha) was lower in Enterobacteriaceae VAP patients between days two to five of mechanical ventilation when compared to controls. Detection of Enterobacteriaceae in the oropharynx occurred on day two of follow-up and consisted of a single operational taxonomic unit in 2/3 patients with enterobacterial VAP.
Conclusions: In acutely-ill patients who developed enterobacterial VAP the causative pathogen gained access to the oropharynx early after starting mechanical ventilation and outgrew the commensal members of the microbiome. Whether a specific pattern of the oropharyngeal microbiome between days three to five of mechanical ventilation may predict VAP enterobacterial VAP has to be evaluated in further studies.
Keywords: Infection prevention; Intensive care; Nosocomial pneumonia; Oropharyngeal and tracheal microbiome; Ventilator-associated pneumonia.