Oral Care Protocol for Preventing Ventilator- Associated Pneumonia

The Nosocomial Pneumonia remains to be a major complication for patients who were incubated with ventilation. Most cases are attributed to increased bacteria flora in oropharyngeal secretion and aspiration of those organisms. Research indicates that the Gram-Negative Bacteria grows in upper air way and trachea rapidly during the initial 2-4 hospital days and the dental plague also increased dramatically at the first 5 days. About 50% cases with prolonged intubation experienced temporal swallowing disorders and majority of them recovered 7 days post weaning. Some evidence exist suggesting that oral care could reduce bacterial flora, prevent aspiration, and subsequently decrease the incidence of ventilation-associated pneumonia for this group of high risk patients.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a standardized oral care protocol in improving oral hygiene and reducing the incidence of pneumonia on a sample of surgical patients at intensive care unit.