Background & Objective: The mortality rate of pneumonia caused by mechanical ventilation is about %25-30. Pneumonia prolongs length of stay in hospital to more than 13 days. There are various approaches to decrease rate of pneumonia in medical wards. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of planned passive respiratory exercise on prevention of pneumonia in coma patients undergo ventilation.

Methods & Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 76 patients were assigned into two experimental and control groups. The control group (n=38) received usual care in the ICU. The experiment group (n=38) received planned respiratory care within six days. The procedure was done in five minutes/six hours for a three day period and then in 10 minutes/six hours for the next three days. Laboratory tests were done before the intervention and in the third and sixth days of the intervention. The respiratory care planning included respiratory passive exercises along with the common respiratory care.

Results: The results indicated that there were significant differences in the results of lab tests between two groups after the intervention (P<0.0001).

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that planned respiratory care had positive effect on prevention of respiratory infection in coma patients.