Background: Endotracheal suctioning has a significant impact on the physiological indices, 
and it is one of the most common interventions in mechanically ventilated patients that can 
impact the endotracheal tube cuff pressure. Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the 
effect of shallow versus deep suctioning techniques on endotracheal cuff pressure 
measurements and physiological indices among patients undergoing mechanical ventilation. 
Design: Quasi-experimental study design. Setting: This study was conducted at both 
Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit and Traumatology and Emergency Medicine Intensive Care 
Unit in Tanta Emergency Hospital affiliated to Tanta University Hospitals. Subjects: A 
purposive sampling of 100 adult patients from previously mentioned setting. Tools: Three 
tools were used to obtain necessary data for this study: Tool I: Mechanically ventilated 
patient assessment tool, tool II: Endotracheal cuff pressure measurements schedule. Tool III: 
Physiological indices assessment. Results: there was a decrease in ETT cuff pressure after 
suctioning compared to pre suctioning in both groups. Also, SBP increased immediately after 
suctioning among both groups, then returned to the previous range after 10 minutes of 
suctioning. On the other hand, significant differences were noticed regarding MAP, HR, and 
SpO2 only in the deep suctioning group with P<0.05. Conclusion: It can be concluded that 
deep endotracheal suctioning is more effective in removing secretions and improving SpO2. 
Meanwhile, it may induce higher variations in hemodynamic parameters and tube cuff 
pressure than shallow endotracheal suctioning. Recommendations: CCNs are recommended 
to perform ETT suctioning using the shallow method while deep suctioning should be used 
only if indicated.