Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia is the most frequent infection occurring in mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a serious issue and remains a significant clinical problem for critically ill patients. The aim of this review article is to evaluate studies to conclude the best existing evidence for providing oral hygiene to intensive care unit patients receiving mechanical ventilation, determine the clinical evidence considering chlorhexidine, and to document a research to improve care interventions used for oral care in the critical patients.

Materials and Methods: Searching was performed in the databases: Sciencedirect, SID, CINAHL, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Springer and PubMed for accessibility to the studies carried out regarding with chlorhexidine mouthwash and ventilator-associated pneumonia between 1991 to 2014 years by using keywords: chlorhexidine mouthwash and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Results: Although oral care with chlorhexidine cause a reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia, but no evidence exists on decrease of mortality in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation admitted in the intensive care unit following its using. Conclusion: Base on this current review article can be said that protective effect of chlorhexidine mouthwash has proved in oral health and prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in the critical patients, but unfortunately no evidence exists to the appropriate protocol for using of chlorhexidine mouthwash in these patients.