Early antibiotic therapy is associated with a lower probability of successful liberation from mechanical ventilation in patients with severe acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 2 Secondary outcomes

Variables	Total population (N = 391)	Missing data	No eABT (N = 131)	eABT (N = 260)	p-value
Ventilator-free days at day-28 [IQR]—day	25 [22–26]	0 (0%)	26 [22–27]	24 [21–26]	< 0.001
Day-28 mortality—no. (%)	31 (8%)	0 (0%)	9 (7%)	22 (8%)	0.69
ICU-free days at day-28 [IQR]—day	23 [20–25]	0 (0%)	24 [21–26]	23 [20–25]	0.001
Hospital-free days at day-28 [IQR]—day	13 [2–18]	76 (19%)	14 [6–20]	13 [4–17]	0.05
Invasive mechanical ventilation-free days at day-28 [IQR]—day	28 [26–28]	0 (0%)	28 [27, 28]	28 [25–28]	< 0.001
Delayed invasive mechanical ventilation—no. (%)	6 (2%)	0 (0%)	2 (2%)	4 (2%)	1

Ventilator-free days were defined as number of days without any respiratory assistance, invasive or non-invasive (or return of premorbid ventilation parameters in case of chronically ventilated patients). If the patient died at any time between admission and day-28, VFD were set to 0. ICU-free days and invasive ventilation-free days were number of days outside of the ICU or without invasive mechanical ventilation at day-28. Delayed invasive mechanical ventilation was defined as invasive mechanical ventilation onset more than 48 h after ICU admission
ICU intensive care unit, eABT early antibiotic therapy, and IQR interquartile range