Sanosil, a more effective agent for preventing the hospital-acquired ventilator associated pneumonia

Purpose ‐ The aim of this study is to compare the effects of Sanosil and glutaraldehyde 2 percent in disinfecting ventilator connecting tubes in an intensive care unit (ICU) environment. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The 12-week open-labelled clinical trial was conducted in the surgical ICU of a teaching hospital from March to May 2005. In the first phase of the study, high level disinfection was performed using glutaraldehyde 2 percent, whereas Sanosil was used as the disinfectant agent of the second phase. Samples for microbial culture were obtained from the Y piece, the expiratory limb proximal to the ventilator and the humidifier in different stages; the results were then compared. Findings ‐ Positive culture was more frequently reported in Y pieces, humidifiers and expiratory end of ventilators. Comparing the two groups, there were more positive cultures in the glutaraldehyde group (p value=0.005); multiple organism growths, gram negative, gram positive and fungi were also more frequent in this group (p value=0.01; 0. 007; 0. 062; 0.144, respectively). Originality/value ‐ The paper shows that Sanosil is an effective agent in reducing the contamination risk in the tubes used in ICUs.