The Investigation On The Effects Of Improved Oral Care In Preventing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Among Mechanical Ventilated Patients

Objective:To investigate the effects of the improved oral care protocol in improving oral healthy conduction and preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) among mechanical ventilated patients.Methods:We randomly assigned80patients accorded with the inclusive criteria, in a1:1ratio, to experimental and control groups. Improved oral care protocol was used in the experimental group, including scrubbing mouth and gums with a toothbrush or tampons, and rinsing mouth with compound chlorhexidine solution50mL, twice a day. The routine oral care strategy was used in the control group, using tampons with compound chlorhexidine solution, twice a day.Oral health assessments were conducted separately, before and2h after oral care strategy. The cases of bad breath, bleeding gums, oral ulcers, ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) were recorded. Each group consecutively used oral care strategy. The effect on oral hygiene was evaluated in3rd day and seventh day after intervention. The incidence of VAP was statistical analysis. Chi-square test was used for count data, rank sum test was used for rank data, p<0.05was considered as statistically significant.Results:(1) The incidence of bad breath was significantly reduced in the experimental group in the3rd day or7th day after oral care (p=0.030;p=0.006); improved oral care protocol was associated with improvement in swelling and bleeding gums{p=0.021) and oral ulcers (p=0.034).(2) Oropharyngeal secretions strains of patients in two groups were detected before and after oral care. The results of two group were significantly different (p=0.000).(3) Improved oral care strategy was associated with the reduction of ventilator-associated pneumonia in two groups of patients with mechanical ventilation (p=0.026)Conclusions:Improved oral care strategy can effectively reduce the incidence of bad breath, swollen gums, bleeding, mouth ulcers and ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients who use mechanical ventilati-on.