Influence of different methods of airway humidification on incidence of pulmonary infections in tracheotomy patients

OBJECTIVE To investigate the humidification effect on tracheotomy patients with intermittent method and continuous artificial airway humidification method and the impact on the incidence of pulmonary infections.METHODS From May 2008 to May 2011,totally 84 patients undergoing tracheotomy,complicated by respiratory failure,severe brain injury,cardiopulmonary resuscitation,general anesthesia without a clear consciousness,were chosen as the research objects;the patients were divided into continuous micro-injection pump dropping airway humidification group(experimental group) and intermittent humidification dropping group(control group),with 42 cases in each group,according to the voluntary principle of the patient′s family The indexes including humidification effect,airway mucosal membrane bleeding,and pulmonary infections were compared.RESULTS The satisfactory rates of the humidification effect of the experimental group and the control group were 88.1% and 57.1%,the difference between the two groups was statistically significant(P0.05),the differences in the incidence rates of the pulmonary infections and the airway mucosal between the two groups were statistically significant(P0.05).CONCLUSION The effect on the humidification for the tracheotomy patients of continuous airway dropping syringe pump method is significantly better than that of intermittent dropping humidification methods.