Objective To analyze the clinical and etiological characteristics and bacterial susceptibility in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in Guangzhou area.Methods A retrospective study was conducted on VAP patients in four hospital of Guangzhou from Jan 2004 to Oct 2005.Totally 157 patients were enrolled in this study，whose flora was identified and tested by Kirby Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility test.The univariate analysis method was used to analyze the prognostic parameters.Results The average onset time of VAP was 7.7 days after mechanical ventilation with a mortality rate of 38.2%.The proportion of Gram-negative bacilli，Gram-positive cocci and eumycete was 68.0%，23.4% and 8.7% respectively in 184 isolated strains.The most common pathogens were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18.5%)，Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (14.1％)，Burkholderia cepacia (10.9%)，Staphylococcus aureus (10.3%) and Acinetobacter baumannii (8.7%).Pseudomonas aeruginosa，Stenotrophomonas maltophilia，and Acinetobacter baumannii were resistant to most common antibacterials such as cephalosporin and imipenem.18 strains oxacillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus，7 strains oxacillin resistant Staphylococcus simulans and one vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus were isolated.Expect for vancomycin，teicoplanin and fusidic acid，the resistance of Gram-positive cocci were above 50% to other 9 antibacterials.Conclusions The antibiotic resistance situation of VAP in Guangzhou is very serious with high mortality.It is important to reinforce the prevention and guidance on the proper treatment of VAP.