Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of early continuous bronchial lavage on pulmonary infection in senile comatose patients. Methods A total of 95 elderly comatose inpatients were selected from January 2016 to December 2019. The patients were divided into two groups according to the time sequence of routine and early bronchial lavage. The early lavage group consisted of 28 patients receiving early lavage who had no signs of pulmonary infection within 48 hours after admission. The other 67 were non-early lavage group. In the non-early lavage group, 25 patients who underwent intermittent bronchial lavage after diagnosis of pulmonary infection were lavage group, and 42 patients without lavage were non lavage group. All the groups were treated with aspiration of sputum, extracorporeal vibration expectoration, atomization, anti-infection and other preventive measures. Occurrence and control of pulmonary infection, pulmonary ventilation function and inflammatory response after treatment, bacterial count of secretion were compared among the three groups. Results The occurrence time of pulmonary infection in early lavage group was longer, CPIS value on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day after treatment, average antibiotic DDD value and infection control time were decreased than those in lavage group and non lavage group (P<0. 05); After pulmonary infection, arterial partical pressure of carbon dioxide, plasma concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 were lower and arterial partial pressure of oxygen was higher in early lavage group than those in lavage group and non lavage group (P<0. 05); The third day, the bacterial count of secretion and the levels of C-reactive protein and procalcitonin in early lavage group were lower than those in lavage group and non lavage group (P<0. 05). Conclusions Early continuous bronchial lavage can reduce the severity of pulmonary infection in comatose patients and shorten the infection control time, which may be related to the inhibition of inflammatory response and the reduction of bacterial count.

Key words: early continuous bronchial lavage, aged, coma, lung infection