RÉSUMÉ
Objective To investigate the value of cluster cate forpatients with ventilator-associated pneumo-nia (VAP) in the intensive care unit. Method Three hundred fifty-four consecutive patients with mechanical ven-tilation support in the Emergency Intensive Care Unit of Nanjing First Hospital from January 2006 to September 2007 were included in this study. The cluster care included elevating patient's head and chest to at least 30 de-grecs to the horizontal level, intensiving frequency of oral-pharyngeal nursing with thorough suction, washing hands, changing ventialtor tube at shorter regular interval, closely observing temperature, sputmn, WBC count, pu-turn, white blood cell count, chest X-ray examination and respiratory tract bacterial culture etc. Another 398 me-chanical ventilated patients with conventional care in the Hospital from January 2004 to November 2005 were taken as control. The t -test and X2 -test were used for analysis. Results The morbidity of VAP was significantly de-creased after cluster care(16.6 % vs. 24.6% P<0.01), the length of intensive care unit stay (LOS) was shorter in patients with cluster care than those in patients of control [(10.75±5.86) d vs. (14.26±9.40) d, P <0.05]. Conclusions Pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation can be effectively reduced by the cluster care.