Effect of abdominal massage in preventing ventilator‐associated pneumonia in patients connected to mechanical ventilators: A systematic review

Doğru, Birgül Vural | Serin, Emine Kaplan

Background Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the common complications in patients in the intensive care unit. Abdominal massage may prevent the development of VAP by reducing residual gastric volume in enterally fed patients. Aim The purpose of this study is to review the literature on randomized controlled and quasi-experimental studies evaluating the effectiveness of abdominal massage in preventing VAP. Methods The PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) criteria were taken as the basis for creating the protocol of the systematic review and writing the article. The systematic review was performed using the Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL and Cochrane Library databases from December 2023 to January 2024. S...