A Randomized Study on the Safety and Tolerability of Mechanical Insufflation-exsufflation and Hypertonic Saline With Hyaluronic Acid for Suctioning of Respiratory Tract Secretions in Patients With Artificial Airway
A Randomized Study on the Safety and Tolerability of Mechanical Insufflation-exsufflation and Hypertonic Saline With Hyaluronic Acid for Suctioning of Respiratory Tract Secretions in Patients With Artificial Airway
Conventional catheter suctioning of respiratory tract secretions is a mandatory procedure in intubated patients. Poor tolerance, pain and other, sometimes severe, lung and cardiovascular complications may occur during suctioning.
Mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MIE), coupled with hypertonic saline (HS), may improve efficacy airway clearance and reduce risk of the maneuver. However, safety of MIE and HS in intubated patients have not been studied appropriately, which justifies a randomized evaluation compared to conventional secretion suctioning.
Secretion suctioning (SS) in patients with artificial airway is a mandatory procedure, although occasionally painful, not tolerated and even causing traumatic injury to the respiratory mucosa.
Mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MIE) and nebulized hypertonic saline with hyaluronic acid (HS-HA) have shown efficacy and safety in patients with chronic neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases, achieving aspiration and fluidification of respiratory secretions, respectively, as well as good tolerance.
Only anecdotal experience about the safety of MIE and HS-HA in critically ill patients with artificial airway and mechanical ventilation is available.
Background: Both MIE and HS-HA facilitate the drainage of secretions from the distal airway (compared to conventional catheter suctioning, the effect of which is supposed to be limited to the trachea) Both measures may prove to be efficacious in the prevention (through airway clearance of secretions) and concomitant treatment (reduction of inoculum or "draining the lung") of lower respiratory tract infections (tracheobronchitis and pneumonia).
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