Review Article
Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract Reduces Pneumonia and Mortality
Table 1
Pathogenicity of microorganisms.
| Site of carriage | Micro-organisms involved | Flora |
| Low pathogenic microorganisms; IPI = 0.01 | | | Throat | Streptococcus viridans | Normal | Veillonella spp. | Peptostreptococci | Gut | Bacteroides spp. | Clostridium spp. | Enterococcus spp | Escherichia Coli | Vagina | Indigenous flora | Skin | Coagulase-negative Staphylococci |
| Potentially pathogenic microorganisms; IPI = 0.3–0.6 | Normal | “Community” PPM | | Throat | Streptococcus pneumoniae | Hemophilus. Influenzae | Moraxella catarrhalis | Staphylococcus aureus | Candida spp. | Gut | Escherichia coli | Staphylococcus aureus | Candida spp. |
| “Hospital” PPM | | |
| Throat and gut | Klebsiella spp. | Abnormal | Proteus spp. | Morganella spp. | Enterobacter spp. | Citrobacter spp. | Serratia spp. | Pseudomonas aeruginosa | Acinetobacter spp. | Multiresistant Staphylococcus aureus |
| Highly pathogenic microorganisms; IPI = 0.9–1.0 | | “Epidemic” microorganisms | | | Throat | Neisseria meningitides | Abnormal | Gut | Salmonella spp. |
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See text for details.
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