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Results of a Survey of Ventilator Circuit Practices in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Donald E. Craven ,
Michael G. Connolly Jr.  and
Theresa A. Goularte
Donald E. Craven
Affiliation:
Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Michael G. Connolly Jr.
Affiliation:
Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Theresa A. Goularte
Affiliation:
Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
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Extract

The responses to a survey of ventilator circuit practices published in Infection Control are shown in the Table. The majority of 249 individuals who responded were located in community hospitals or community teaching hospitals of 100 to 500 beds. Most of the hospitals changed ventilator circuits (tubing humidifying cascades and swivel adapters) every 24 hours or less. Interestingly, 30.1% of the hospitals indicated that “self-study” was used to determine the time interval of ventilator circuit changes. Our 1982 study of contamination in mechanical ventilators at 24 and 48 hours confirmed earlier observations that mechanical ventilators with cascade humidifiers do not generate small particle aerosols.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 5 , Issue 7 , July 1984 , pp. 353 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1984

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References

1.Craven, DE, Connolly, MG Jr: Readers' forum. Infect Control 1981;2:478–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Craven, DE, Connolly, MG Jr, Lichtenberg, DA, et al: Contamination of mechanical ventilators with tubing changes every 24 or 48 hours. N Engl J Med 1982;306:1505–1509.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Reinarz, JA, Pierce, AK, Mays, BB, et al: The potential role of inhalation therapy equipment in nosocomial pulmonary infection, J Clin Invest 1965;44:831–839.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Craven, DE, Goularte, TA, Make, BA, Contamination of condensate in ventilator circuits: A risk factor for nosocomial pneumonia. Am Rev RespirDis, 1984;129:625–628.Google ScholarPubMed
5.Kunches, LM, Lichtenberg, DA, Craven, DE, Preliminary results from a randomized trial of patients having mechanical ventilator circuit charges at 24 and 48 hours. Read before the Association for Practitioners in Infection Control, Washington, DC, June 4-6, 1984.Google Scholar