Oral mucosal mouthwash with chlorhexidine does not reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill children: A randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most frequently encountered causes of hospital-acquired infection and results in high morbidity among intubated patients. Few trials have investigated the efficacy of oral care with chlorhexidine (CHX) mouthwash for the prevention of VAP in the paediatric population. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of CHX mouthwash in the prevention of VAP and to determine risk factors for VAP in children aged 1 month to 18 years admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). METHODS: This was a prospective, randomised, controlled, double-blind trial performed in the PICU. Patients were randomised into two groups receiving CHX (0.12%) (n = 88) or placebo (0.9% NaCl) (n = 86) and were followed up for VAP development. The main outcome measures were incidence of VAP, duration of hospital stay, duration of PICU stay, duration of ventilation, mortality, and the characteristics of organisms isolated in cases with VAP. RESULTS: No difference was observed in the incidence of VAP and the type and distribution of organisms in the two groups (p > 0.05). In the CHX and placebo groups, we identified 21 and 22 patients with VAP, respectively. Incidence per 1000 ventilation days was 29.5 events in the CHX group and 35.1 events in the placebo group. Gram-negative bacteria were most common (71.4% in CHX vs. 54.5% in placebo). The use of 0.12% CHX did not influence hospital stay, PICU stay, ventilation, and mortality (p > 0.05). Multivariate analysis identified duration of ventilation as the only independent risk factor for VAP (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The use of 0.12% CHX did not reduce VAP frequency among critically ill children. The only factor that increased VAP frequency was longer duration on ventilation. It appears that low concentration of CHX is not effective for VAP prevention, especially in the presence of multiresistant bacteria. GOV IDENTIFIER: NCT04527276.

Comparison of arterial CO2 estimation by end-tidal and transcutaneous CO2 measurements in intubated children and variability with subject related factors.

Transcutaneous PCO2 (PTCCO2) and end-tidal PCO2 (PETCO2) measurement methods serve as alternatives to arterial PCO2 (PaCO2), providing continuous non-invasive monitoring. The objective of this study was to evaluate the PTCCO2 and PETCO2 methods with actual PaCO2 levels, and to assess the variability of measurements in relation to subject-related factors, such as skin and subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness and presence of pulmonary diseases. PTCCO2, PETCO2 and PaCO2 were measured at the same time in intubated pediatric subjects. Subjects' demographic characteristics, clinical features, laboratory parameters, skin and subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness were identified. The study was carried out on 102 subjects with a total of 1118 values for each method. In patients with non-pulmonary disease, the mean difference between PTCCO2 and PaCO2 was - 0.29 mmHg (± 6.05), while it was 0.44 mmHg (± 6.83) bias between PETCO2 and PaCO2. In those with pulmonary diseases, the mean difference between PTCCO2 and PaCO2 was - 1.27 mmHg (± 8.32), while it was - 4.65 mmHg (± 9.01) between PETCO2 and PaCO2. Multiple linear regression demonstrated that increased subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness, core body temperature and inotropic index were related with higher PTCCO2 values relative to the actual PCO2 values. Other factors, such as skin tissue thickness, presence of pulmonary disease, measurement location and measurement times were non-significant. The PTCCO2 method has higher reliability than the PETCO2 method, and PTCCO2 measurements are not influenced by most subject-related factors; however, core body temperature, inotropic index and subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness can lead to significant differences in PCO2 measurement.

Comparing the novel microstream and the traditional mainstream method of end-tidal CO2 monitoring with respect to PaCO2 as gold standard in intubated critically ill children.

The objective of this study was to evaluate a novel microstream method by comparison with PaCO2 and the more standard mainstream capnometer in intubated pediatric patients. We hypothesized that the novel microstream method would superior compared to the traditional mainstream method in predicting PaCO2. This was a prospective single-center comparative study. The study was carried out on 174 subjects with a total of 1338 values for each method. Data were collected prospectively from mainstream and microstream capnometer simultaneously and compared with PaCO2 results. Although both mainstream PetCO2 (mainPetCO2) and microstream PetCO2 (microPetCO2) were moderately correlated (r = 0.63 and r = 0.68, respectively) with PaCO2 values, mainPetCO2 was in better agreement with PaCO2 in all subjects (bias ± precision values of 3.8 ± 8.9 and 7.3 ± 8.2 mmHg, respectively). In those with severe pulmonary disease, the mainPetCO2 and microPetCO2 methods were highly correlated with PaCO2 (r = 0.80 and r = 0.81, respectively); however, the biases of both methods increased (14.8 ± 9.1 mmHg and 16.2 ± 9.0 mmHg, respectively). In cases with increased physiologic dead space ventilation, the agreement levels of mainPetCO2 and microPetCO2 methods became distorted (bias ± precision values of 20.9 ± 11.2 and 25.0 ± 11.8 mm Hg, respectively) even though mainPetCO2 and microPetCO2 were highly correlated (r = 0.78 and r = 0.78, respectively). It was found that the novel microstream capnometer method for PetCO2 measurements provided no superiority to the traditional mainstream method. Both capnometer methods may be useful in predicting the trend of PaCO2 due to significant correlations with the gold standard measurement in cases with severe pulmonary disease or increased physiological dead space -despite reduced accuracy.