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Withholding selective decontamination of the digestive tract from critically ill patients must now surely be ethically questionable given the vast evidence base

Critical Care volume 14, Article number: 443 (2010) Cite this article

Shibli and colleagues recently commented [1] on the Dutch randomised controlled trial in which selective digestive decontamination (SDD) and selective oro-pharyngeal decontamination (SOD) were associated with significantly lower odds of death as compared with standard care, with odds ratios of 0.83 (P = 0.02) and 0.86 (P = 0.045), respectively [2]. We disagree with the authors' conclusion that, because there were similar mortality reductions, SOD may be preferred as this avoids routinely exposing patients to intravenous antibiotics and involves less resistance.

Cephalosporin consumption was higher in the SDD group, but defined daily doses of penicillins, carba-penems, quinolones and other antibiotics increased by 31%, 37%, 25% and 15%, respectively, in SOD compared with SDD in the Dutch randomised controlled trial [2].

In citing the monthly point prevalence survey [3] of the Dutch randomised controlled trial, Shibli and colleagues failed to mention that the average prevalence of aerobic Gram-negative bacilli resistant to ceftazidime, tobramycin and ciprofloxacin in the respiratory tract was significantly lower during SDD/SOD than in the pre-intervention and post-intervention periods, and that aerobic Gram-negative bacilli resistance to ciprofloxacin and tobramycin in rectal swabs was significantly reduced during SDD compared with standard care/SOD [2, 3].

Finally, two recent meta-analyses evaluated the effectiveness of SDD [4] and of SOD [5]: lower airway infections were significantly reduced by both SDD and SOD, but only SDD was associated with a significant survival benefit.

We believe that withholding SDD is now ethically questionable given the vast body of evidence on the technique reducing severe infections and mortality, requiring less antibiotic use, and providing less resistance.

Abbreviations

SDD:

selective digestive decontamination

SOD:

selective oropharyngeal decontamination.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis, 1st Oosterpark str 279, Amsterdam, 1090, Netherlands

    Durk F Zandstra

  2. Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, London, UK

    Andy J Petros

  3. School of Clinical Sciences,University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Nia Taylor & Hendrick KF van Saene

  4. Department of Emergency, Unit of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Presidio Ospedaliero, Gorizia, 34170, Italy

    Luciano Silvestri

  5. Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos y Grandes Quemados, Hospital Universitario de Getafe, Madrid,Getafe, Spain

    Miguel A de la Cal

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  1. Durk F Zandstra
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  2. Andy J Petros
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  3. Nia Taylor
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  4. Luciano Silvestri
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  5. Miguel A de la Cal
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  6. Hendrick KF van Saene
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Correspondence to Durk F Zandstra.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Zandstra, D.F., Petros, A.J., Taylor, N. et al. Withholding selective decontamination of the digestive tract from critically ill patients must now surely be ethically questionable given the vast evidence base. Crit Care 14, 443 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/cc9255

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Critical Care

ISSN: 1364-8535