The Effect of Ventilator Circuit Change every Five Days on the Occurrence of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia among Critically Ill Patients

Abstract

1.ABSTRACT Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) has a major impact on patients' outcomes, making it an important concept to understand for the health care team working with critically ill patients. It is a frequent complication of mechanical ventilation with a high mortality rate. Bacterial colonization of the ventilator circuits is one of the main sources of pathogens causing VAP in mechanically ventilated patients. Changing the ventilator circuits every five days may reduce the incidence of VAP among those patients. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of ventilator circuit change every five days on the occurrence of VAP among critically ill patients. Method: A quasi-experimental design was used to conduct this study in the emergency surgical intensive care units of the Emergency Hospital at Mansoura University. A sample of 94 patients was randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 47) and the control group (n = 47). The intervention group received 5 day ventilator circuit change and the control group received routine change. Ventilator-associated pneumonia assessment tool was used to collect data for this study. Results: The findings showed a reduction in the occurrence of VAP among patients with 5 day ventilator circuit change ( P <0.001). Conclusion: Changing the ventilator circuits every 5 days is a safe practice and can significantly reduce the occurrence of VAP among critically ill patients. Recommendations: Critical care nurses should incorporate the ventilator circuit change every 5 days into their practices to reduce the occurrence of VAP and achieve good patients' outcomes. Large scale studies are needed to enrich the evidence related to mechanically ventilated patients' care.