Study Cohort
A total of 5,322 bacterial respiratory cultures were obtained among 533
children with tracheostomies across 3,578 inpatient and outpatient
encounters during the 9-year study period. After excluding subsequent
cultures obtained in the same encounter, 3,578 cultures remained in the
final cohort (median 4 cultures per child, IQR: 1-9, full range 1-45).
Approximately one quarter of cultures (25.9%, 926 cultures) were
obtained during an encounter with ARI diagnosis (Table 1 ).