How the humble toothbrush can thwart hospital infections
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
The humble toothbrush could prove to be a life-saver for patients in intensive care who are at serious risk of getting hospital-acquired pneumonia, according to a new analysis in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Why it matters: Hospital-acquired pneumonia is among the most common and deadly health care-associated infections and is thought to be triggered by microorganisms released into saliva that make it into patients' airways.
Details: Focusing on patients' oral hygiene can dial back infection risk, Michael Klompas, a co-author of the analysis and hospital epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital told Axios.
- But providers often do that with antiseptic rinses or swabs. And widely used chlorhexidine mouthwashes have been linked in some studies to increased mortality in the patient population.
- A review of 15 clinical trials found that "rigorous, regular" daily toothbrushing was associated with roughly a 33% lower risk of hospital-acquired pneumonia among patients on ventilators.
- It also was associated with a 20% lower mortality rate in the intensive care unit, stays of two fewer days in the ICU and one day less on a ventilator.
What they're saying: "The amazing thing is that something so simple, and so familiar to us, can potentially have such a big effect," Klompas said.
- "We put a lot of our attention and our consciousness on the fancy, the wonderful, the expensive, the unusual," he said. "Sometimes the simple, basic things that your mother told you can be very, very potent."
Yes, but: There's far less evidence of its benefits for patients who were not in the ICU, making conclusions for the general hospitalized population harder to tease out, Klompas said.
The bottom line: A low-cost, low-tech option made a significant difference for some of the most vulnerable patients and makes a case for developing programs to encourage daily toothbrushing in hospitalized patients more generally, Klompas said.
