Thesis & Dissertations

Tracheal suctioning (TS) is an essential and frequently performed procedure for patients requiring mechanical ventilation. There are two methods of TS: open and closed suctioning systems. Evidence to preferring a method over the other is still not clear. This study was conducted to determine the effect of using Closed System Suction (CSS) versus Open System Suction (OSS) on a number of physiological parameters and collected secretions. A comparative study, following single case repeated measure design, was carried out at the Intensive Care Unit, Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut. It included a sample of 30 adult patients who were ventilated for more than 24 hours. They were assigned to two equal groups: group (I): received OSS prior to CSS, group (II): received CSS prior to OSS. One tool of 3 parts was developed and used to collect the required data. Part “1”contained patient’s health bio-medical characteristics such as: age, sex, diagnosis, medical history….etc. Part “2” involved a patient clinical assessment sheet used to collect changes in physiological parameters, immediately before (IBS), immediately after (IAS) and 10 minutes after suctioning. Part “3”was used to assess aspirated secretions for weight, color, and consistency. Study results indicated no significant difference between the effects of the two methods on peripheral oxygen saturation. Changes in heart and respiratory rates and rhythm appeared to be significantly lower in CSS than OSS, IAS. CSS caused significantly lower changes in mean arterial pressures, IAS, compared to OSS. One of the obvious study findings was that CSS aspirated smaller amount of secretions than OSS in patients with mucopurulent and blood- tinged secretions. In conclusion, CSS caused lower physiologic changes than OSS, especially IAS, yet aspirated smaller amount of mucopurulent and blood-tinged secretions.