Effect of breathing filter on prevention of respiratory tract infection following general anesthesia in elderly patients

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of breathing filter(BF) on prevention of the respiratory tract infection in elder patients undergoing general anesthesia.Methods One hundred elderly who underwent the operation of gastrointestinal tumors were involved in the current study.They were randomly divided into control and experiment group and each for 50 cases.Patients in experiment group were given BF while in control group were not given.Bacteria on the tip of endotracheal tube and in the anesthesia machine circuits close to endotracheal tube were checked.The rate of the respiratory tact,infection of operative patients were recorded.Results After operation,a large number of bacterial growth in endotracheal catheter ends in both groups.The level of bacteria in the anesthesia machine circuits of control group was (305.2 ± 12.4) CFU/cm2,higher than that in experiment group ((10.2 ± 2) CFU/cm2 ; t =166.077,P ＜ 0.001).No patients in experimental group got respiratory tract infection in the follow up periods,but 5 patients (10.0％) in control group were infected,and the difference was significant (x2 =5.263,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion BF can effective filtrate the bacterial in breathing circuit,significantly reduce the incidence rate of respiratory tract infection. Key words: Breathing filter; Elderly patients; General anesthesia; Respiratory tract infection