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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Intensive care unit (ICU) patients who need mechanical ventilation may now have a better way to ward off pneumonia.
New research from Washington University School of Medicine shows silver-coated endotracheal tubes reduce the risk of pneumonia associated with ventilators. Research finds silver has antimicrobial activity in the laboratory and has blocked harmful pathogens from forming on ventilator tubes in animal models.
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Researchers looked at patients at 54 centers who were expected to need mechanical ventilation for 24 hours or longer. More than 2,000 patients were randomly assigned to have intubation with either a silver-coated tube or a similar tube that was not coated.
Out of 1,509 patients who were incubated for 24 hours or longer, the study found 4.8 percent of those with silver-coated tubes developed ventilator-associated pneumonia compared with 7.5 percent of those with uncoated tubes a 35.9 percent relative reduction in risk. Among 1,932 patients who were on ventilators for any length of time, the silver coating was associated with a 34.2 percent relative reduction in risk of developing pneumonia.
In conclusion, the results of this large, randomized, multicenter study demonstrated that the silver-coated endotracheal tube significantly reduced the incidence of microbiologically confirmed ventilator-associated pneumonia and had its greatest benefit during the peak time of ventilator-associated pneumonia occurrence, without any notable adverse events, the authors conclude. The silver-coated endotracheal tube appears to offer a unique approach because it is the first intervention that becomes user-dependent after intubation, requiring no further action by the clinician.
SOURCE: JAMA, 2008;300:805-813
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