Evidence Hub

Association between perioperative chlorhexidine oral care and postoperative pneumonia in non-cardiac surgical patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Shi-lian Liang, Xingxia Zhang, Yan-Jie Hu, Jie Yang, Ka Li

Surgery, 2021

12,528 participants · 28 citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Postoperative pneumonia is the third most common complication after surgery, and its occurrence is associated with a poor prognosis in patients. Perioperative chlorhexidine oral care has been reported to reduce the incidence of postoperative pneumonia in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. However, whether perioperative chlorhexidine oral care can reduce the incidence of postoperative pneumonia in noncardiac surgical patients is still unknown. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the association between perioperative chlorhexidine oral care and postoperative pneumonia in noncardiac surgical patients.

METHODS

A comprehensive systematic search of PubMed, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Wanfang Database, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure was conducted to include studies from the inception of each database through March 2021. The reference lists of all included studies were also searched by hand. Eligible studies were published and unpublished randomized controlled trials and observational studies evaluating the effect of perioperative chlorhexidine oral care on the reported incidence of postoperative pneumonia. Relative risks or odds ratio with their 95% confidence intervals were calculated and risk of bias was assessed for eligible studies.

RESULTS

Seven randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,773 patients and 3 observational studies with a total of 12,528 noncardiac surgical patients were…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid. Reported size: 12,528 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free