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The effect of prone positioning on ventilator parameters, blood gas levels, and ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care unit patients: a randomized controlled trial

Burcu Dedeoğlu Demir, N. Enç, Şermin Börekçi

BMC Nursing, 2025

94 participants · 1 citation

Abstract

This study was planned to compare the prone position and non-prone position groups and to evaluate arterial blood gas results, mechanical ventilator values and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) status before, during, and after patients were brought back to the non-prone position. This study is a randomized controlled trial with a parallel-group design and a 1:1 allocation ratio. A block randomisation method was used to ensure balanced allocation between two groups. The research was conducted in the 14-bed and 26-bed general ICUs of two private hospitals on the European side of Istanbul. The 94 eligible participants were randomly divided into two groups. 52 participants were assigned to the prone position group, while 42 participants were assigned to the non-prone position group, which served as the control group. In the end, 40 participants were in each group. The intervention involved placing patients in the prone position and monitoring their arterial blood gas results, mechanical ventilator values, and VAP status at multiple stages: before, during, and after returning them to the non-prone position. Each patient was followed for a minimum of 5 days. The majority of the participants were male (51.2%) and aged 45–64 (48.8%). The comparison of experimental and control groups indicated statistically significant difference in saturation, FiO₂, inspiratory-expiratory tidal volume, and blood gas levels of the patients in the treatment group (p = 0.001; p < 0.01). The change…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 94 participants or records.

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