Evaluation of the Effects of the Closed Sputum Suction Method in Ventilated Patients at Intensive Care Unit from Vietnam

: Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections. In Vietnam, the rate of VAP according to a study at the National Children's Hospital in 2015 was 34%. Closed sputum suction (CSS) is one of the effective methods to reduce the rate of VAP. Materials and methods: randomized controlled experimental study was conducted on two groups of patients with mechanical ventilation through endotracheal intubation at the Vung Tay Nguyen General Hospital from September 2020 to November 2021: (1) the experimental group consisted of 30 patients who were cared for by CSS method, (2) the control group consisted of 30 patients who were cared for by the open sputum suction (OSS) method. Result: The results showed that the CSS reduced the VAP rate from 66.7% to 30% compared with the OSS. This method is also effective on improving the average SpO2 index, stabilizing the SpO2 index during sputum suction process. In addition, CSS also improves the treatment period, especially the time of mechanical ventilation is reduced and the time to diagnose VAP of patients using the CSS method also starts later. The factors of body mass index (BMI), SpO2, length of hospital stay, time of mechanical ventilation are the factors that are related to the VAP rate with statistical significance (p<0.05).