The effect of Echinacea mouthwash on ventilator associated pneumonia in patients in intensive care units

Background and Objective: Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most prevalent hospital infections in intensive care units. Mouthwash is one of the caring procedures which can be effective in decreasing the rate of VAP. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of Echinacea mouthwash on prevalence of ventilator associated pneumonia in intensive care units.

Materials and Method: In this clinical trial study, population was the intubated patients in intensive care units of educational hospitals in Arak in 2014. 70 patients were selected purposively and then were randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups, In intervention group, mouthwash with Echinacea and in control group with normal saline was done twice daily. The rate of VAP was assessed by Clinical Pulmonary Infection Scale (CPIS), before and on the fifth day of intervention. Data were analyzed by Chi square, independent T-test and fisher’s exact test through using SPSS16.

Results: prevalence of Ventilator associated pneumonia was 60 percent in normal saline and 51.4 percent in Echinacea group buth the Chi square test didn’t show significant difference between two groups.

Conclusion: According to results, Echinacea can relatively decrease the rate of VAP in ventilated patients, but more investigations in this area are essential.