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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Murine Oropharyngeal Aspiration Model of Ventilator-associated and Hospital-acquired Bacterial Pneumonia
Published on: June 28, 2018
Intermittent suction of oral secretions before each positional change may reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia: a
Hui-Hwa Tsai1, Fang-Chi Lin, Shi-Chuan Chang
1Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Background:
That ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) can be reduced by continuous and/or intermittent subglottic suction highlights the importance of clearance of oropharyngeal secretions. We prospectively evaluated the usefulness of intermittent suction of oral secretions before each positional change in reducing VAP.
Methods:
A time-sequence nonrandomized intervention design was used. The study consisted of a 9-month observation phase (control group, 237 patients), a 6-month education phase, followed by a 7-month intervention phase (studied group, 227 patients). The occurrence of VAP, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and mortality were recorded.
Results:
VAP occurred less frequently in the studied group (6 of 227 patients, 2.6%) than in the control group (26 of 237 patients, 11.0%; P < 0.001). The incidence rate of VAP in control and studied groups was 6.51 and 2.04 per 1000 ventilator days, respectively (P = 0.002). For VAP patients, the ventilator days were 28.8 +/- 17.2 days and 20.2 +/- 4.0 days (P = 0.009), respectively, and the length of ICU stay was 27.6 +/- 17.0 days and 20.3 +/- 4.0 days (P = 0.012), respectively, in the control and studied groups. Intermittent suction of oral secretions before each positional change was the only independent factor responsible for a decrease of VAP in the studied group after stepwise logistic regression analysis (P = 0.003).
Conclusions:
Intermittent suction of oral secretions before each positional change may reduce VAP occurrence in ICU patients.
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