Preventive oral hygiene and ventilator-associated pneumonia in paediatric intensive care unit

Aim Data indicate a tendency towards an increased incidence through the last decades of various forms of pneumonia. Among these, nosocomial pneumonia in patients who have been on mechanical ventilation support (increased after the Covid-19 pandemic) is a condition that must be addressed as soon as possible to avoid complications. Current literature lacks an in-depth analysis of the potential correlation between ventilator-associated pneumonia and poor oral hygiene, especially in children. The aim of this literature review is to investigate if improving oral hygiene could affect the onset of nosocomial pneumonia in children. Materials and methods A search was performed in Pubmed, Medline, and Scopus for the keywords: oral care, children, neonates, ventilator-associated pneumonia, combined with 'AND' or 'OR' Boolean Operators. Results The search yielded 236 potentially eligible articles; after exclusion for duplicates and title, and after the abstract and full text review, 12 articles were selected: 2 literature reviews, 1 pilot study, 4 observational studies, 1 survey and 4 randomised controlled trials. Conclusions The relevant papers retrieved in the scientific literature emphasised the importante of good oral care bundles to mitigate the bacteria proliferation in the bloodstream, and to prevent the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia.