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. 2021 Nov;9(11):1215-1216.
doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00404-5.

How to avoid an epidemic of endotracheal tube occlusion

Affiliations

How to avoid an epidemic of endotracheal tube occlusion

François Lellouche et al. Lancet Respir Med. 2021 Nov.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

FL declares financial contributions from Fisher & Paykel to develop a smartphone app (VentilO) to help the implementation of lung protective ventilation, and to conduct bench humidification evaluations, and honoraria for a symposium on dead space and high flow. LB declares honoraria for a symposium on high flow from Fisher & Paykel. All other authors declare no competing interests. We thank Eduardo Mireles-Cabodevila, Scott Neuhofs, and Samuel P Wiles (Cleveland clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA), who provided the HMEs used at their centre to conduct bench tests. We also thank Tsuneaki Kenzaka (Kobe, Japan) and Rohan K Panchamia (New York, NY, USA) for their help to determine the reference of the HMEs used at their centre.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Absolute humidity of devices according to manufacturers’ values and psychrometric measurements Medline, Sunmed, Inter-Therm, and MR 850 devices were involved in endotracheal tube occlusions in patients with COVID-19; HygrobacS was not. A humidity of 28 mg H2O/L (red line) was considered to be a safe limit, with psychrometric and gravimetric measurements performed in independent and specialised laboratories., Blue lines represent the recommended minimum humidity for heat and moisture exchangers (ISO 9360) and heated humidifiers (ISO 8185). ISO=International Organization for Standardization. *Measurements were performed according to ISO standards, with tidal volumes of 500 mL (HygrobacS) or 250 mL (Inter-Therm), or unreported conditions (Medline and Sunmed); data were collected from the manufacturers’ websites or measurements of hygrometry with heated humidifiers and heat and moisture exchangers in our laboratory in June, 2021.

References

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