BACKGROUND: This study was aimed to identify the effect of oral care using 0.1% chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in the intensive care unit (lCU). METHODS: A total of 82 ventilated patient were enrolled in this prospective clinical trial performed during the 6-month period from October, 2005 through March, 2006. oral care was performed on the patients three times a day with 0.1% CHG for the study group and with 0.9% saline for the control group. To evaluate the colonization of potential pathogens, sputum cultures were taken on the first day of ventilation and followed on days 3, 5, 7, and 14. RESULTS: The overall incidence rate of YAP was 0.359 in the CHG-treated group compared to 0.116 in the NaCI-treated group (P=0.017). Likewise, 1000 device-day incidence rate of YAP was significantly lower in the CHG-treated group than in the NaCI-treated group (P=0.0396). However, among the patients whose initial sputrm cultures were positive , both the incidence rate (P=0.114) and 1000 device-day incidence rate (P=0.361) were not statistically significant. The average time from the day of ventilation to the onset of VAP among the patients whose initial sputrm cutures were positive was 14 days in the CHG-treated group and 9 days in the NaCI-treated group, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.169). CONCLUSION: An oral care with 0.1% CHG was helpful in controlling VAP in the ICU patients, but the effectiveness of CHG could not be confirmed in the patients whose initial sputrm cultures were positive.
Chlorhexidine* ; Colon ; Humans ; Incidence ; Intensive Care Units* ; Critical Care* ; Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated* ; Prospective Studies ; Sputum ; Ventilation

The development of standards and guidelines of rehabilitation nursing has been the major concerns for providing better nursing to the rehabilitation clients. As the patients with stroke and spinal cord injuries are the most prevalent physical disabilities in Korea, this study focussed on the nursing diagnoses of these two groups of patients. In order to identify the nursing diagnoses frequently used in their practice for the patients with stroke and spinal cord injuries, a survey was done with the questionnaire form developed by the research team. The surveyee were the staff nurses working at rehabilitation wards more than 2 years from 8 general hospitals in Korea. They identified and set the priorities of 13 nursing diagnoses from 79 stroke patients and 10 nursing diagnoses from 35 patients with spinal cord injuries during the periods from March 1 to June 2, 1999. The identified nursing diagnoses for the stroke patients are impaired physical immobility, sensory-perceptual alterations, activity intolerance, self -care deficit, altered defecation, altered urination, risk for injury, unilateral neglect, impaired skin integrity, altered thought processes, pain, altered health maintenance, dysreflexia. The identified nursing diagnoses for spinal cord injuries are altered urination, altered defecation, impaired skin integrity, pain, risk for injury, reflex incontinence, impaired physical immobility, self-care deficit, activity intolerance, knowledge deficit.
Defecation ; Diagnosis* ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Korea* ; Nursing ; Nursing Diagnosis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reflex ; Rehabilitation Nursing* ; Rehabilitation* ; Self Care ; Skin ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Stroke* ; Urination