Heat and moisture exchanger PALLBB22-15F can prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in short term mechanically ventilated ICU patients

Introduction

VAP is a serious infection with a mortality rate exceeding 50%. It also leads to an increase in the duration of the treatment and adds to hospital costs. Bacteria, in intubated patients, may be directly inoculated into the endotracheal tube from the hands of medical personnel or from contaminated respiratory therapy equipment (i.e. humidifiers). We tried a heat and moisture exchanger to substitute the conventional ventilator humidifiers to prevent VAP in the ICU setting.

Methods

Subjects were intubated and attached to the conventional respiratory assistance cascades in the first year of the study (July 1992-June 1993). Retrospectively, cases of VAP were calculated prospectively, during the following year (July l993-June 1994), subjects were intubated and attached to respiratory assistance cascades; but PALL filter, a heat and moisture exchanger, was in-line and the machine humidifiers were bypassed. The cases of VAP were calculated.

Study population

Intubated ICU patients with normal CXR on admission to the unit.

Results

VAP rates decreased in the group of HMEF dramatically in comparison to the conventional humidification method (see Table below).

Conclusion

We concluded that heat and moisture exchanger filters can prevent VAP in short term mechanically ventilated ICU patients, and can halve its rate in long term durations.

Table 1