THE CURRENT PRACTICE PATTERNS OF MECHANICAL VENTILATION FOR RESPIRATORY-FAILURE IN PEDIATRIC-PATIENTS

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the current practice patterns of mechanical ven tilation for respiratory failure in pediatric patients. DESIGN: Mail s urvey using 2 hypothetical case studies sent to pediatric critical car e physicians. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The required arterial blo od gas (ABG) on conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV) is pH = 7.25 to 7.29, Po-2 = 50 to 59 torr, O-2 saturation = 0.85 to 0.89. Most of our survey participants will treat a patient failing conventional mec hanical ventilation in their pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) wi th inverse ratio ventilation (IRV) (95%) and with high-frequency oscil latory ventilation (HFOV)(92%), CONCLUSION: Most of the surveyed pedia tric critical care physicians practice permissive hypercapnia in the t reatment of their patients who receive ventilatory assistance. More th an 90% of surveyed pediatric critical care physicians art: presently u sing inverse ratio ventilation and high-frequency oscillatory ventilat ion. These data suggest that these innovative modes of therapy are alr eady accepted as part of the standard therapeutic spectrum by the surv eyed group of physicians.