Conceptos actuales en la fisiopatología, monitorización y resolución del edema pulmonar

[Respiratory monitoring of pediatric patients in the Intensive Care Unit]

Respiratory monitoring plays an important role in the care of children with acute respiratory failure. Therefore, its proper use and correct interpretation (recognizing which signals and variables should be prioritized) should help to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and the effects of therapeutic interventions. In addition, ventilated patient monitoring, among other determinations, allows to evaluate various parameters of respiratory mechanics, know the status of the different components of the respiratory system and guide the adjustments of ventilatory therapy. In this update, the usefulness of several techniques of respiratory monitoring including conventional respiratory monitoring and more recent methods are described. Moreover, basic concepts of mechanical ventilation, their interpretation and how the appropriate analysis of the information obtained can cause an impact on the clinical management of the patient are defined.

Alveolar fluid clearance in healthy pigs and influence of positive end-expiratory pressure

INTRODUCTION

The objectives were to characterize alveolar fluid clearance (AFC) in pigs with normal lungs and to analyze the effect of immediate application of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP).

METHODS

Animals (n = 25) were mechanically ventilated and divided into four groups: small edema (SE) group, producing pulmonary edema (PE) by intratracheal instillation of 4 ml/kg of saline solution; small edema with PEEP (SE + PEEP) group, same as previous but applying PEEP of 10 cmH2O; large edema (LE) group, producing PE by instillation of 10 ml/kg of saline solution; and large edema with PEEP (LE + PEEP) group, same as LE group but applying PEEP of 10 cmH2O. AFC was estimated from differences in extravascular lung water values obtained by transpulmonary thermodilution method.

RESULTS

At one hour, AFC was 19.4% in SE group and 18.0% in LE group. In the SE + PEEP group, the AFC rate was higher at one hour than at subsequent time points and higher than in the SE group (45.4% vs. 19.4% at one hour, P < 0.05). The AFC rate was also significantly higher in the LE + PEEP than in the LE group at three hours and four hours.

CONCLUSIONS

In this pig model, the AFC rate is around 20% at one hour and around 50% at four hours, regardless of the amount of edema, and is increased by the application of PEEP.