The Effect of Garlic Pills on the Results of Cultured Samples from Peripheral, Urinary, and Central Catheters and Inflammatory Factors in Patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of garlic oral pill in preventing the onset of nosocomial infection in the patients who admitted in intensive care unit (ICU).
In a clinical trial study, 100 patients who admitted in intensive care unit of Alzahra hospital, Isfahan, Iran, were selected and randomly divided into two groups. The first group were received garlic tablets every 8 hours for 6 days, and the second group did not receive the garlic pill. During the study, inflammatory factors, sepsis, and infection were compared between the two groups.
Findings: 78 samples of intravenous catheter were sent to the laboratory for culture, 37 of which were in the intervention group and 41 were in the control group. The result of the culture of the tip of the venous catheter was positive in 5 cases, all of which were in the control group, and no positive culture was observed in the intervention group (P = 0.035). For 35 patients in the intervention group and 30 in the control group, urine culture was performed. The results of the culture were positive in two of the intervention group and six in the control group (5.7% versus 20%), but the difference was not significant (P = 0.130).
The use of garlic pill in patients admitted in intensive care units that are highly susceptible to hospital infection may be effective in preventing septicemia and urinary tract infections.