Critical Care

official impact factor 4.60

Commentary

Attributable cost of methicillin resistance: an issue that is difficult to evaluate

Jean-François Timsit

Author Affiliations

Groupe d'épidémiologie des cancers et des affections graves INSERM U 578, Service de réanimation médicale, University Hospital Albert Michallon, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France

Critical Care 2006, 10:157 doi:10.1186/cc4994

Published: 11 August 2006

Abstract

Estimating the consequences and the cost of methicillin resistance is a difficult challenge. Patients who develop methicillin-resistant ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) are very different from those who develop methicillin-sensitive VAP, and biased estimates are frequent. We reviewed some important confounding factors of which the reader should be aware.