Objective: To assess the safety and efficacy of sustained inflations (SI) as lung recruitment maneuvers (RMs) in ventilated pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients.
Design: Observational, prospective data collection.
Setting: Tertiary-care PICU.
Patients and participants: Thirty-two consecutive ventilated pediatric patients.
Interventions: An SI (30-40 cmH(2)O for 15-20 s) was performed following a ventilator disconnection, suctioning, hypoxemia, or routinely every 12 h. Physiologic variables were recorded for 6 h after each SI. All other management was at the attending physician's discretion. The change in variables from pre-SI to post-SI (at 2, 10, and 15 min, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 h) was compared using mixed models to account for repeated measures in the same patient.
Measurements and results: 93 RMs were performed on 32 patients (ages 11 days to 14 years). RMs were done after suctioning (58/93, 62%), ventilator disconnect (5/93, 5%), desaturation (8/93, 9%), or routinely (22/93, 24%). Seven of 93 RMs (7.5%) were interrupted for patient agitation, and 2/93 (2.2%) for transient bradycardia. There was no evidence of statistically significant changes in systolic blood pressure, heart rate, or oxygen saturation as measured by pulse oximetry from pre-RM to post-RM, and there were no air leaks. In three patients with altered intracranial compliance, three of eight RM were associated with a spike of intracranial pressure. There was a sustained significant decrease in FiO(2) by 6.1% lasting up to 6 h post-RM.
Conclusions: RMs (as SI) are safe in ventilated PICU patients and are associated with a significant reduction in oxygen requirements for the 6 h after the RM.