Effect of preoperative oral care on prevention of lower respiratory tractinfections in endotracheal intubation patients after general anesthesia

OBJECTIVE To explore the influence of the oral care measures on incidence of lower respiratory tract infections in endotracheal intubation patients after general anesthesia so as to provide guidance for clinical prevention.METHODS A total of 330 endotracheal intubation patients who underwent posterior lumbar spinal decompression interbody fusion surgery under general anesthesia from Jun 2013 to Sep 2014 were recruited as the study objects and randomly divided into three groups,with 110 cases in each group.The preoperative oral care measures,including the tooth brushing,gargle,and combined measures,were respectively taken,100 cases were set as the blank control group,and the effects of the preoperative oral care measures on prevention of the lower respiratory tract infection were observed.RESULTS The incidence of lower respiratory tract infection was 16.51%in the tooth brushing group,10.09%in the gargle group,4.59%in the combined measure group,20.00%in the blank control group,and there was significant difference in the incidence of lower respiratory tract infection among the four groups（P＜0.05）;there was significant difference in the incidence of lower respiratory tract infection among the combined measure group,the tooth brushing group,and the blank control group after the general anesthesia（P＜0.05）;however,as compared with other groups,there was no significant difference in the incidence of respiratory tract infection.CONCLUSION The application of conventional tooth brushing plus mouth washing with chlorhexidine gargle before the general anesthesia can achieve certain effect on prevention of the lower respiratory tract infection in the endotracheal intubation patients after the general anesthesia.