Objective: Saline instillation is one of the ways to improve secretion removal during endotracheal suctioning. In the present study we compared the saline instillation to no saline instillation group on haemodynamic parameters. Design: Randomized Controlled trial. Settings: Fifty - bedded mixed intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching institute. Materials and Methods: The study included sixty mechanically ventilated subjects, diagnosed with pulmonary infections were randomly assigned to saline and no saline group with thirty subjects in each group. Following single session of suctioning procedure, haemodynamic parameters such as oxygen saturation, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate were measured at baseline, immediate and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th, 15th and 30th minutes. Measurements: Two way ANOVA was used to find the difference between two groups. Comparison between groups with respect to baseline data was done by Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Comparison of two groups on oxygen saturation resulted in significant decrease in saline group compared to no saline group (P<0.05).The extent of reduction was 98% to 95% with significant drop at 2nd, 3rd and 5th minutes. There was no significant difference between groups on heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. Conclusion: The present study concludes instillation of saline for secretion removal to be used judicially as it leads to decreased oxygen saturation.

Key words: Endotracheal suctioning, Pulmonary infections, Saline instillation.