Ventilated patients may not need residual gastric volume monitoring
Major Finding: Rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia were 15.8% with residual gastric volume monitoring and 16.7% without it, a nonsignificant difference.
Data Source: A multicenter randomized noninferiority trial involving patients at nine French ICUs requiring mechanical ventilation and receiving early enteral nutrition; 222 in the control group underwent standard residual gastric volume monitoring every 6 hours and 227 in the intervention group did not.
Disclosures: This study was sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Departmental de la Vendee. No financial conflicts of interest were reported.
FROM JAMA
Third, and perhaps most important, many studies have challenged the role of gastric aspiration in the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia. The oral cavity, not the stomach, may be the significant reservoir of pathogens that cause this form of pneumonia, they said.
Eliminating the routine monitoring of residual gastric volume would be advantageous in that it would significantly reduce the workload of nurses and other clinicians, allowing them to focus on other interventions that have proved their value, Dr. Reignier and his colleagues added.
The study was sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Departmental de la Vendee. No financial conflicts of interest were reported.
