A Comparative Study between Current Ventilator Care Management and that after Application of Ventilator Care-Bundle on Patient Outcome in the Intensive Care Unit of Suez Canal University Hospital

Background: Ventilation-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent infection occurring in patients after admission to the intensive care unit. It is defined as pneumonia occurring more than 48 hours after patients have been intubated and received mechanical ventilation. Aim: To improve care of intubated and ventilated patients in ICU. Methods: 100 patients admitted to the ICU of Suez Canal University Hospital were recruited in a randomized controlled clinical trial. They were all intubated and mechanically ventilated. The patients were then randomly allocated into one of two equal groups; Group A patients were managed with current ICU protocol and Group B patients were managed with ventilator care bundle after its application. The primary outcomes included comparison of incidence of VAP of ventilated patients in ICU with current care management and after implementation of ventilator care bundle. The secondary outcomes included ventilation days, ICU stay, and hospital stay and mortality rate. Results: The incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) was significantly lower with implementation of ventilator care bundle (20%) versus application of current care bundle (44%) (p-value=0.01). Implementation of ventilator care bundle aided reducing the risk of VAP to about 45% of risk associated with application of current care bundle, and reducing the incidence of VAP by 54.5% with application of ventilator care bundle. Conclusion: Ventilator care bundle is effective in reducing incidence of VAP among ICU patients and subsequently reducing ventilation days, ICU stay and hospital stay decreasing the cost for each patient.