The impact of abdominal massage administered to intubated and enterally fed patients on the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia: A randomized controlled study

Background: Enteral nutrition is one of the major risk factors for ventilator-associated pneumonia. Abdominal massage is assumed to prevent the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia by reducing residual gastric volume. Objectives: To identify the effect of abdominal massage administered to critically ill patients with mechanical ventilation and continuous enteral feeding on the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Design: A randomized controlled design was used in this study. Setting: This study was performed in a critical care unit of a university hospital in Turkey. Participants: The sample of the study consisted of a total of 32 patients, selected randomly to receive abdominal massage (n=16) and a control group (n=16). The stratified randomization was used in this study. Patients were stratified according to age and gender. Methods: A fifteen-minute abdominal massage was administered to the patients in the intervention group twice daily. No intervention was administered to the patients in the control group. Results: At the end of monitoring days a reduction, compared to the control patients, was identified. The amount of gastric residual volume and abdominal circumference measurement of the patients in the intervention group had decreased. This reduction was found to be significant in the statistical analysis (p<. 0.05). Also, although not reaching the statistical significance level, ventilator-associated pneumonia decreased in the intervention group with a ratio of 6.3% compared to the control group (31.3%) (p>. 0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that abdominal massage administered to intubated and enterally fed patients reduced gastric residual volume and abdominal distension. In addition, a decrease in the ratio of ventilator-associated pneumonia was determined.