Toothbrushing may reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia

Abstract

Data sources: The databases Embase, Medline, CINAHL, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, clinical trials.gov and controlled-trials.com were searched. Reference lists of reviewed articles and eligible trials were also searched, and toothpaste and toothbrush manufactures were contacted.

Study selection: Randomised controlled trials in adults over 18 years receiving mechanical ventilation were included where any kind of oral care involving toothbrushing was compared with any other kind of oral care or control with or without toothbrushing.

Data extraction and synthesis: Data were extracted in duplicate and quality assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The results were combined using a random effects model. The main outcome was VAP.

Results: Six trials involving a total of 1408 patients were included. The risk of bias was high in four trials, low in one and unclear in the other. In four trials, there was a trend toward lower ventilator-associated pneumonia rates (risk ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.50-1.21; p = 0.26). The only trial with low risk of bias suggested that toothbrushing significantly reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia (risk ratio, 0.26; 95% confidence interval, 0.10-0.67; p = 0.006). Use of chlorhexidine antisepsis seems to attenuate the effect of toothbrushing on ventilator-associated pneumonia (p for the interaction = 0.02). One trial comparing electric vs. manual toothbrushing showed no difference in ventilator-associated pneumonia rates (risk ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.47-1.96; p = 0.91). Toothbrushing did not impact on length of ICU stay, or ICU or hospital mortality.

Conclusions: In summary, randomised trials to date show that toothbrushing is associated with a trend toward lower rates of VAP in intubated, mechanically ventilated critically ill patients. There is no clear difference between electric and manual toothbrushing. Toothbrushing has no effect on ICU mortality, hospital mortality, or ICU length of stay.