Introduction: Ventilation associated pneumonia is the most common life-threatening hospital infection in the intensive care unit. Its occurrence can be reduced by appropriate methods and activities, but it cannot be completely prevented. One of these activities is the proper performing of oral hygiene. Purpose: The purpose of my final thesis is to present oral hygiene performing in intubated patients in the intensive care unit in prevention of ventilator associated pneumonia from the viewpoint of the nurse. We wanted to find out, which solutions are recommended for the intubated patient’s oral hygiene in terms of ventilator associated pneumonia prevention. Methods: A descriptive method of work was used with a critical review of Slovene and foreign professional and scientific literature. Literature was conducted via Digital Library of the University of Ljubljana portal (DiKUL) in the international online databases CINAHL, Medline, Cochrane Library and Jstor and with the help of shared catalogue database COBIB.SI. Literature search was conducted using keywords in Slovene and English language: oral hygiene, oral care, ventilator associated pneumonia, prevention, intensive care, oral hygiene standard, chlorhexidine, iodine, normal saline, solutions, frequency. The literature written between 2009 and 2019 was considered, whereas the literature between 2012 and 2019 was used to answer the research questions. Contents analysis of 19 scientific articles was made. Results: The most commonly used and reported in the literature as a solution, that has proven to be the most effective in preventing ventilator associated pneumonia, is chlorhexidine of 0.12% to 2% concentration. Echinacea, glutamine, povidone-iodine and herbal mouthwash solutions are used as well. Recommended frequency of oral hygiene performing is still poorly researched. Discussion and conclusion: Data for individual researches of oral hygiene frequency were obtained mainly by interviewing nurses. The frequency of oral hygiene performing varies. In all the studies analysed recommended the use of an antiseptic solution chlorhexidine, nevertheless, it would be necessary to research the use of other solutions, which have proven effective in the prevention of the ventilator associated pneumonia in individual studies. Some of them may have fewer side effects than antiseptics. Carefully planned clinical researches are necessary to determine the choice of solution and the optimal frequency of performing individual oral hygiene activities. Health-care institutions should develop evidence-based guidelines and protocols for health workface to follow and implement.
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