• Ales Rara, Karel Roubik, and Tomas Tyll.
• Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Military University Hospital Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Biomedical Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic. Electronic address: raraales@uvn.cz.
• J Crit Care. 2020 Oct 1; 59: 76-80.

PurposeIn patients with pleural effusion (PLE) monitored by Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) an increase in end-expiratory lung impedance (EELI) is observed following evacuation of the PLE. We aimed at differentiating the effect of fluid removal from lung reaeration and describe the change in ventilation distribution.Materials And MethodsMechanically ventilated patients were monitored by EIT during PLE evacuation. End-expiratory lung volume (EELV) was measured concurrently. We included a calibration maneuver consisting of an increase in positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) by 5 cm H2O. The ratio ΔEELI/ΔEELV was used to compare changes of EELI and EELV in response to the calibration maneuver and PLE evacuation. At the same time we assessed distribution of ventilation using changes in tidal variation.ResultsPLE removal resulted in a 6-fold greater increase in ΔEELI/ΔEELV when compared to the calibration maneuver (r = 0.84, p < .05). We observed a relative increase in ventilation in the area of the effusion (mean 7.1%, p < .006) and an overall shift of ventilation to the dorsal fraction of the lungs (mean 8%, p < .0002).ConclusionsThe increase in EELI in the EIT image after PLE removal was primarily due to the removal of the conductive effusion fluid.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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