Abstract: OBJECTIVE To explore the distribution and drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria causing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) so as to provide guidance for clinical use of antibiotics. METHODS By means of retrospective survey, the results of sputum culture for 432 VAP patients were statistically analyzed from Jan 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2015, the pathogenic bacteria were identified by using automatic microorganisms identification system of BioMérieux, France, the drug susceptibility testing was carried out through MIC method, and the statistical analysis of data was performed with the use of SPSS19.0 software. RESULTS A total of 798 strains of pathogenic bacteria were isolated from the 432 patients with VAP, including 557 (69.80%) strains of gram-negative bacteria, 205 (25.69%) strains of gram-positive bacteria, and 36 (4.51%) strains of fungi; the Acinetobacter baumannii and Escherichia coli were dominant among the gram-negative bacteria; the Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant species of gram-positive bacteria.Among the gram-negative bacteria, the drug resistance rates of the A.baumannii to amikacin and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim were relatively low, while the drug resistance rate to other antibiotics was more than 90.0%; the E.coli strains were highly susceptible to piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem, amikacin, and meropenem; the Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were highly susceptible to imipenem, cefotetan, and meropenem, while the drug resistance rate to ampicillin was 100.0%.Among the gram-positive bacteria, the S.aureus strains were susceptible to tigecycline, vancomycin, macrodantin, and linezolid; all of the Enterococcus faecium strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, erythromycin, levofloxacin, and moxifloxacin, however, the strains were susceptible to vancomycin, linezolid, and tigecycline. CONCLUSION It is necessary for the hospital to conduct the bacterial culture as early as the antibiotics are used and choose sensitive antibiotics based on the results of drug susceptibility testing so as to improve the therapeutic effect and avoid the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.