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The influence of professional oral hygiene care on reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia in trauma intensive care unit patients

British Dental Journal volume 232, pages 253–259 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Aim This study aimed to examine the effects of professional oral hygiene care for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and the improvement of oral hygiene among patients in the trauma intensive care unit (TICU).

Materials and methods TICU patients who underwent intubation were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n = 29) or control group (n = 28). The developed professional oral hygiene care protocol was administered to patients in the experimental group every 24 hours. Additionally, data regarding general characteristics, medical history, oral hygiene status, Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score and quantitative polymerase chain reaction were assessed.

Results The incidence of VAP differed between the control group (10.58) and experimental group (0) post intervention. Post-admission bedside oral exam scores with significant differences in oral hygiene were observed in the experimental group (in contrast to the control group) from 48 hours onwards (10.69 ± 3.43, p = 0.06). Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae exhibited significant differences in count as professional oral hygiene care continued.

Conclusions This study suggests a model in which different health care professionals can cooperate to reduce the incidence of VAP and improve oral health conditions.

Key points

  • There is a lack of evidence on the effect of professional oral hygiene care on reducing ventilator-related pneumonia for critically ill patients and a lot of clinical studies are required.

  • Professional oral hygiene care showed the effect of reducing the incidence of ventilator-related pneumonia in critically ill patients. In addition, there was a significant reduction in effect of Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, the major strains of ventilator-related pneumonia.

  • Professional oral hygiene care improved the oral health status of critically ill patients.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2017R1C1B5018013).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dental Hygiene, College of Software and Digital Healthcare Convergence, Yonsei University, Republic Of Korea

    Ma-I Choi & Sun-Young Han

  2. Department of Dental Hygiene, Yeoju Institute of Technology, Republic Of Korea

    Hyun-Sun Jeon & So-Jung Mun

  3. Department of Dental Hygiene, The Graduate School, Yonsei University, Republic Of Korea

    Eun-Sil Choi

  4. Dental Life Science Research Institute, The Seoul National University Dental Hospital, Republic Of Korea

    Seung-Eun Won

  5. Dental Hygiene, NYU College of Dentistry, New York, USA

    Ye-Ji Lee

  6. Department of Oral Pathology, Yonsei University College of Dentistry, Republic Of Korea

    Ji-Hye Yang

  7. Department of Nursing, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Republic Of Korea

    Chi-Yun Baek

  8. Regional Trauma Centre, Department of Surgery, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Republic Of Korea

    Hongjin Shim

Authors
  1. Ma-I Choi
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Contributions

So-Jung Mun and Ma-I Choi designed the study, analysed data and drafted the manuscript. Sun-Young Han and Hyun-Sun Jeon collected and analysed data. Eun-Sil Choi, Seung-Eun Won, Ye-Ji Lee and Ji-Hye Yang collected data. Chi-Yun Baek and Hongjin Shim helped review the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to So-Jung Mun.

Ethics declarations

This trial was registered in Clinical Research Information Service, Osong (Chungcheongbuk-do) (KCT0005275), which is affiliated with the WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform.

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Choi, MI., Han, SY., Jeon, HS. et al. The influence of professional oral hygiene care on reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia in trauma intensive care unit patients. Br Dent J 232, 253–259 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-022-3986-3

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