Oral mucosal mouthwash with chlorhexidine does not reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill children: A randomised controlled trial.

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most frequently encountered causes of hospital-acquired infection and results in high morbidity among intubated patients. Few trials have investigated the efficacy of oral care with chlorhexidine (CHX) mouthwash for the prevention of VAP in the paediatric population.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of CHX mouthwash in the prevention of VAP and to determine risk factors for VAP in children aged 1 month to 18 years admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Comparing the novel microstream and the traditional mainstream method of end-tidal CO monitoring with respect to PaCO as gold standard in intubated critically ill children.

The objective of this study was to evaluate a novel microstream method by comparison with PaCO and the more standard mainstream capnometer in intubated pediatric patients. We hypothesized that the novel microstream method would superior compared to the traditional mainstream method in predicting PaCO. This was a prospective single-center comparative study.

Comparison of arterial CO estimation by end-tidal and transcutaneous CO measurements in intubated children and variability with subject related factors.

Transcutaneous PCO (PCO) and end-tidal PCO (PCO) measurement methods serve as alternatives to arterial PCO (PaCO), providing continuous non-invasive monitoring. The objective of this study was to evaluate the PCO and PCO methods with actual PaCO levels, and to assess the variability of measurements in relation to subject-related factors, such as skin and subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness and presence of pulmonary diseases. PCO, PCO and PaCO were measured at the same time in intubated pediatric subjects.