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

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101088683 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 1472-6955 (Print) Linking ISSN: 14726955 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Nurs Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2002]-

Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The research was conducted in accordance with the principles set out in the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval and institutional permission were obtained from the Istanbul Arel University Ethics Committee (E-69396709-050.06.04-172992 and Decision No: 2). Informed consent was also obtained from the participants in order to evaluate the ethical suitability of the research. Any discrepancies from the original protocol, such as attrition and participant flow, have been reported and addressed accordingly. Consent for publication: All authors gave consent for publication and have contributed significantly to research involved/ the writing of the manuscript. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient (or their legal guardian) for the publication of any identifying images or clinical details presented in this manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Objectives: 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.
Design: 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.
Setting: The research was conducted in the 14-bed and 26-bed general ICUs of two private hospitals on the European side of Istanbul.
Participants: 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.
Intervention: 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.
Results: 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).
Conclusions: The change in the experimental group was greater than in the control group. In conclusion, the mechanical ventilator parameters and blood gas levels of the patients in the treatment group were better than those of the patients in the control group. It is recommended as an effective practice in patients receiving prone position mechanical ventilation (MV).
Clinical Trial Registration Number and Registration Date: NCT05760716/ March 6, 2023 (This trial was registered retrospectively at ClinicalTrials.gov (Registration Number: NCT05760716) after its completion due to demanded revisions. The integrity of the data and adherence to the study protocol were ensured throughout. The trial adhered to ethical standards (ethics committee approval, informed consent) even if it was not registered prospectively).
(© 2025. The Author(s).)

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Keywords: Arterial blood gas; Intensive care; Mechanical ventilators; Prone position; Ventilator-associated pneumonia

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05760716

Date Created: 20250221 Latest Revision: 20250224

20250225

PMC11846282

10.1186/s12912-025-02817-3

39984994