Oral care and bacteremia risk in mechanically ventilated adults.
OBJECTIVE
Transient bacteremia occurs in healthy populations from toothbrushing. With the high incidence of bacteremia in the intensive care unit and toothbrushing as an oral care method, this study examined the incidence and clinical significance of transient bacteremia from toothbrushing in mechanically ventilated adults.


METHODS
Prospective pre- and post-test with all subjects (N = 30) receiving a toothbrushing intervention twice per day (up to 48 hours). The planned microbial analysis used DNA typing to identify organisms from oral and blood cultures collected immediately before, 1 minute, and 30 minutes after the interventions.


RESULTS
Seventeen percent of subjects had oral cultures that were positive for selected pathogens before the first toothbrushing intervention. None of the subjects had evidence of transient bacteremia by positive quantitative blood cultures before or after the toothbrushing interventions. Patient characteristics were not statistically significant predictors for systemic inflammatory response syndrome, length of hospital stay, or length of intubation.


CONCLUSIONS
The toothbrushing intervention did not induce transient bacteremia in this patient population.
Jones
Deborah J
DJ
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. deborah.j.jones@uth.tmc.edu
Munro
Cindy L
CL
Grap
Mary Jo
MJ
Kitten
Todd
T
Edmond
Michael
M
D000328:Adult; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology; D003945:Diagnosis, Oral; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009055:Mouth / Q000382:microbiology*; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors