ABSTRACT : To compare the incidence of Ventilator associated Pneumonia in neurosurgical patients with intermittent oral suction and continuous subglottic suction

METHODS : Prospective,randomised comparative trial conducted in ICU of our hospital.70 adult neuro surgical patients , mechanically ventilated for more than 72 hours were randomized into two groups . Till 7 days 4 hrly monitoring of. Temperature(T), Heart Rate(HR), Blood Pressure(BP) done along with TLC and DLC(daily), endotracheal tube(ET) culture(alt day),blood culture(3,6days) and CXR(alt day) for evidence of VAP. Data analysed by SPSS software

RESULTS : No significant difference statistically in incidence of VAP in the two groups although it is significant clinically and can be seen in a study which will have a bigger sample size. The overall reduction of VAP per thousand pts is 57.

CONCLUSIONS : studies conducted by Valles et al , Smulders et al, Mahul et al have shown a significant reduction in VAP by use of subglottic suction. However kollef et al found a non significantreduction.Incidence of VAP in 70 adult neurosurgical patients being mechanically ventilated was studied after intermittent oral suction and continuous subglottic suction. Clinically significant but statistically insignificant reduction was seen after subglottic suction