Staphylococcal pneumonia in ventilated patients: a twelve-month review of cases in an intensive care unit.

We reviewed staphylococcal lower respiratory tract infections in our intensive care unit over a 12-month period. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from tracheal aspirates more commonly in patients with intracranial trauma (P < 0.001), between one and six days (mean = 3) after admission to the intensive care unit. Bacteriophage typing of all S. aureus lower respiratory tract isolates from the 17 patients with head injury did not provide evidence for a common external source of infection or patient-to-patient transmission.