Estudo in vivo da avaliação da ação antimicrobiana de um protocolo de descontaminação oral em crianças hospitalizadas no Centro de Terapia Intensiva, Hospital São Vicente de Paulo, RS

Abstract

Oral hygiene is of great importance for the general health of the individual. The lack of oral hygiene, or poor oral hygiene, leads to the colonization of the oral biofilm by pathogenic microorganisms, mainly respiratory pathogens. The objective of this study was to evaluate, in vivo, the potential for reducing the microbial load of an oral decontamination protocol in children hospitalized at the Pediatric Intensive Care Treatment Center (CTIP) of Hospital São Vicente de Paulo (HSVP). For this, microbiological samples were collected at different times of the oral decontamination protocol: before decontamination and after this procedure. The culture method was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the decontamination protocol on the oral microbial load. It was found that the oral decontamination protocol was not statistically effective in reducing the total microbial load and Acinetobacter spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (p>0.05). Although a great difference was found in the median reduction between the initial and final collections, these were not statistically significant (p>0.05). However, when dealing with the microorganism Staphylococcus aureus, there was a statistically significant reduction (p<0.05). With this, it was concluded that the oral decontamination protocol with chlorhexidine digluconate 0.12% in pediatric patients hospitalized in an Intensive Care and Treatment Center (ICU) showed effectiveness against the microorganism Staphylococcus 4 aureus, however, when treating of the microorganisms Acinetobacter spp. and Pseudo-monas aeruginosa, this protocol does not guarantee an effective microbial reduction, denoting the need for further clinical studies.