Avaliação microbiológica em circuitos dos ventiladores mecânicos usados no Hospital de Clínicas da UFTM

Abstract

The clinical application of artificial ventilatory support to the patient has evolved and may have an impact on the improvement of survival and the quality of care provided by health professionals. This scenario generates interesting perspectives for clinical-epidemiological studies, as well as for investigations of the microbiological behavior in products for health that can be processed, allowing repeated cleaning, disinfection or sterilization. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the microorganisms present in the respiratory circuits of mechanical ventilators used in the hospital at the Clinics Hospital of the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro. For this purpose, specimens were collected for culture in the expiratory branches of the corrugated tubes in three different phases: in phase 1, were evaluated the tubes that had been used by the patients in invasive mechanical ventilation; in phase 2, those previously processed (cleaned) in non-sterile water with enzymatic detergent and in stage 3, were analyzed the tubes that had been dried with compressed air jets and sterilized in ethylene oxide. The level of contamination in some circuits analyzed was in the order of 45.12% in Phase 1; 28.04% in Phase 2 and 13.41% during Phase 3, with identification of the following bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus sp. coagulase negative, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae and Enterococcus. In this study it is possible to verify that there is a significant relationship between the respiratory circuit processing method, where we found a significant reduction (p = 0.0142) in the bacterial population, after the respiratory circuits were exposed to the treatment with enzymatic solution, obtaining the removal of microorganisms of 84.38%, therefore, the processing presented efficiency and reduction of four logarithms of the bioburden. In the circuits analyzed after sterilization there was growth of microorganisms (28.86%) with possibility of cross-contamination.