Abstract
BackgroundPotential benefits of subglottic secretion suction for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) are not fully understood.MethodsWe searched Cochrane Central, PubMed, and EMBASE up to March 2016 to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared subglottic secretion suction versus non-subglottic secretion suction in adults with mechanical ventilation. Meta-analysis was conducted using Revman 5.3, trial sequential analysis (TSA) 0.9 and STATA 12.0. The primary outcome was incidence of VAP. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to evaluate the level of evidence.ResultsTwenty RCTs (N = 3544) were identified. Subglottic secretion suction was associated with reduction of VAP incidence in four high quality trials (relative risk (RR) 0.54, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.40–0.74; p < 0.00001) and in all trials (RR = 0.55, 95 % CI 0.48– 0.63; p < 0.00001). Sensitivity analyses did not show differences in the pooled results. Additionally, the results of the above-mentioned analyses were confirmed in TSA. GRADE level was high. Subglottic secretion suction significantly reduced incidence of early onset VAP, gram-positive or gram-negative bacteria causing VAP, and duration of mechanical ventilation. It delayed the time-to-onset of VAP. However, no significant differences in late onset VAP, intensive care unit (ICU) mortality, hospital mortality, or ICU length of stay were found.ConclusionsSubglottic secretion suction decreased VAP incidence and duration of mechanical ventilation and delayed VAP onset. However, subglottic secretion suction did not reduce mortality and length of ICU stay. Subglottic secretion suction is recommended for preventing VAP and for reducing ventilation length, especially in the population at high risk of early onset VAP.Trial registrationA protocol of this meta-analysis has been registered on PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42015015715); registered on 5 January 2015.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13054-016-1527-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Potential benefits of subglottic secretion suction for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) are not fully understood
The incidence of VAP accounts for 9 % to 27 % endotracheal intubated patients, whereas VAP has a mortality rate ranging from 25 % to 50 % [2,3,4]
Twenty studies reported that 3544 patients were included in this meta-analysis (Fig. 1) [17, 20,21,22,23,24, 30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43]
Summary
Potential benefits of subglottic secretion suction for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) are not fully understood. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common clinical issue for patients receiving mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU) [1]. VAP increased ICU and hospital length of stay, antibiotic consumption, and healthcare cost [5,6,7,8]. The primary mechanism of VAP is the microaspiration of the accumulated secretions around the endotracheal tube cuff. Preventive measures for microaspiration and VAP include continuous control of tracheal cuff pressure, conical cuff shape, and subglottic secretion suctioning (SSS). The prevention of VAP by SSS is not fully proven based on current evidence. The effect of SSS on early- or late-onset VAP, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU length of stay, and mortality is controversial [16]. Six RCTs [17, 20,21,22,23,24] involving new evidence on this topic have been published recently
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