Effects of dry and traditional bed bathing on respiratory parameters: a randomized pilot study.

Luana Vieira Toledo,Carla De Fátima Januário,Cristiane Chaves De Souza,Lídia Miranda Brinati,Flávia Falci Ercole,Patrícia De Oliveira Salgado

doi:10.1590/1518-8345.3668.3264

Abstract

Objective:to compare the time for performance of dry and traditional bed bathing and its effects on transcutaneous arterial oxygen saturation and respiratory rates in critical adult patients.Method:pilot study of a randomized, open, crossover clinical trial, performed with 15 adult critically ill patients. Each patient received a dry and a traditional bed bath. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used, adopting p-value ≤ 0.05.Results:most patients were male (73.3%), white (66.7%), with a mean age of 69.7 years. The dry bath was faster (20.0 minutes) than the traditional bath (30.0 minutes) (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between the patients’ saturation means between baths (p=0.381), with 94.7% for the dry bath and 95.2% for the traditional bath. During the traditional bath, the patients’ respiratory rate mean was higher (24.2 incursions per minute) and statistically different (p<0.001) from the value obtained for the dry bath (20.5 incursions per minute).Conclusion:the dry bath had a shorter duration than did the traditional bath, resulting in less patient exposure. The traditional bed bath had a negative effect on patients’ respiratory rate, increasing it. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (ReBEC): RBR-5qwkqd

Highlights

In Intensive Care Units (ICUs), patients can often lose their autonomy for self-care, experiencing the feeling of helplessness while attempting to meet basic human needs, such as keeping personal hygiene[1].Most of these patients are unable to perform their bath by themselves, and it is up to the nursing team to do so, in the form of a bed bath[2]
It is evident that prolonged baths, lasting more than 20 minutes, are considered as a risk factor for changes in Transcutaneous Arterial Oxygen Saturation (SpO2); body temperature; Blood Pressure (BP); Heart Rate (HR) and Respiratory Rate (RR)(6)
In view of the above, this pilot study was designed with the objective of comparing the time for performance of the dry and the traditional bed baths and their effects on SpO2 and RR in critically ill adult patients. This is a pilot study of an open, randomized, crossover clinical trial (RCT), in which all participants received, at random, both interventions, and their SpO2 and RR values were recorded

Summary

Introduction

In Intensive Care Units (ICUs), patients can often lose their autonomy for self-care, experiencing the feeling of helplessness while attempting to meet basic human needs, such as keeping personal hygiene[1]. Most of these patients are unable to perform their bath by themselves, and it is up to the nursing team to do so, in the form of a bed bath[2]. With regard to the effects of bathing on respiratory parameters, a study conducted with critically ill cardiovascular patients showed the occurrence of tachypnea in 66.7% of patients, which may be related to their handling during the procedure[7]. SpO2 values, in turn, remained above 95% and were not statistically different (p=0.472) throughout the bath[8]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion