중환자실 환자의 구강함수액 종류에 따른 구강간호 효과 비교

Green tea as a substitute of oral hygiene solution for patients in the intensive care unit

Purpose:This experimental study was undertaken to find the effect of green tea as a substitute of oral hygiene solution for intensive care unit(ICU) patients with intolerance of chlorhexidine. Normal saline was also used for this study. Methods: The subjects were 83 patients in ICU, 22 patients were assigned to chlorhexidine group, 36 patients to normal saline group, and 25 patients to green tea group. The data was collected from Sep. 2007 to Nov. 2007 at C National University Hospital in G city. The effect of oral care was measured by 4-point likert scale of tongue coating, oral dryness, oral comfort, and incidence of pathogens in oral cavity. Variables were measured at baseline, post intervention 3 days, and 1 week. Results: The scores of tongue coating(3days, X2=3.168 p=.205; 1week, X2=2.702 p= .259), oral dryness (3days, X2=4.593 p= .101; 1 week, X2=5.150 p= .076), incidence of pathogens (3 days, X2 = .759 p= .684; 1week, X2=1.457 p= .480), and oral comfort (1week, X2 = .887 p= .642) were not significantly different among three groups. Conclusion : This study indicated that green tea showed the similar oral hygiene effect in comparison with chlorhexidine. This suggested that green tea could be handled for the options of oral hygiene solution according to the preference of patients with intolerance of chlorhexidine.