Lower respiratory tract infections increase ICU stays by an average of nine days according to a study in Infection Control Today.
Researchers retrospectively studied the hospital stays of 49 ICU patients with LRTI and 49 ICU patients without at 10 different ICUs between January 2010 and December 2010.
Results showed that the average length of stay increased from 24 days to 36 days when a LTRI was present.
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