ETT

Let’s read an article a month – February 2022

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The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I read an open-access article. I share the title and associated link with my followers to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.
 
This month I found an interesting piece to share with you.  This one falls under the innovation category and is about a product called CleanSweep.  The objective of this paper is to introduce CleanSweep and assess “whether the CleanSweep suction catheter is more efficient for secretion removal than the standard suction catheter” (p.138).  To give a quick description, CleanSweep is a “closed-system suctioning device with an integrated inflatable balloon at its tip. … The balloon is not designed to be inflated with the catheter beyond the distal end of the ETT, and it is only inflated during catheter withdrawal thus “sweeping” the secretions off the interior wall of the ETT” (p.138)
Before you continue, I would like to add a quick disclaimer that this is not an endorsement or a sponsored blog post. Please continue to use products that have been approved by your employer.

Evaluation of a novel endotracheal tube suctioning system incorporating an inflatable sweeper 

By John D. Davies, MA, RRT, Yuh Chin Huang, MD, MHS, and Neil R. MacIntyre, MD.

Can J Respir Ther 2021;57:138–142. doi: 10.29390/cjrt-2021-02

Link to the article: https://www.cjrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/cjrt-2021-026.pdf

Reasons I found this article interesting

  • The device has a physical “sweeping” method for removing secretions in the ETT versus just a suction method.
  • It is a closed suction system and the valve provides three options of ‘locked, suction only mode and suction and balloon mode (p139). 
  • It was published on CJRT, a publication I trust.
  • The authors were clear and transparent about their conflict of interests, on page 141, and also clear about the limitations of their study:
    • “Neither our study nor other studies on mechanical ETT cleaners have been designed to be long enough nor large enough to demonstrate improved clinical outcomes linked to improved secretion removal. To do this will require large expensive randomized controlled trials following many patients over long periods assessing such outcomes as hospital length of stay and even mortality. “ (p141)

Happy reading and learning,

Farzad Refahi

Feb. 6, 2022

https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-february-2022/

Let’s read an article a month –December 2020

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The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I try to read an open-access article. After reading the article, I share the tittle and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

Link to the article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029208/

Link to the blog post: https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-december-2020/

This month I found a great piece to share with you.  This one is a case study. The authors of this paper have tried to “report a case of a middle-aged lady who was initially misdiagnosed as having acute asthma after brief tracheal intubation” (p.1). 

Tracheal stenosis mimicking severe acute asthma

Ali Bin Sarwar Zubairi, Babar Dildar, Shahid Javed Husain and Mohammad Faisal Khan

BMJ Case Rep. 2010; 2010: bcr1220092517.

Link to the article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029208/pdf/bcr.12.2009.2517.pdf

Reasons you may find this article interesting 

  • Tracheal stenosis post intubation is rare but it can happen.  To make the case even rarer, this lady was intubated for less than 48 hours. 
  • This article includes images that are interesting to view.  Two are from the bronchoscopy view of the narrowing (Figures 1 and 2. on pages 2 and 3).  The other image is a CT scan of the neck which shows the tracheal stenosis (Figure 3 page 4).  I greatly enjoyed seeing the visual aspect of this case!
  • I enjoyed reading the differential diagnosis from her ER visit:
    “New-onset severe asthma, bilateral vocal-cord paralysis, foreign-body aspiration, tracheal tumours, post-intubation/tracheostomy tracheal stricture, Wegener’s granulomatosis, obstruction of trachea or mainstem bronchi due to external compression from mediastinal tumours or adenopathy” (p.2).

I encourage you to read this interesting and short case study as the authors also review the potential reasons why this stenosis occurred and also the potential treatment options.

If you enjoyed this article, consider liking this blog post and sharing it with others who may benefit from it.

Happy learning and reading!

Farzad Refahi

December 1st, 2020https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-december-2020/


Happy learning and reading!

Farzad Refahi
December 1st, 2020
https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-december-2020/