• Samantha da Silva Souza, Luciana Castilho de Figueiredo, Cristina Aparecida Veloso Guedes, and Sebastião Araújo.
• UNICAMP.
• Rev Bras Ter Intensiva. 2007 Sep 1; 19 (3): 310-6.

Background And ObjectivesThe cuff leak test aims to evaluate the presence of airway obstruction and normally is carried through in the controlled mode of mechanical ventilation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cuff leak in patients breathing spontaneously, across three different methods, and to compare them.MethodsTwenty intubated patients had been submitted to three different forms of cuff leak test, all of them in spontaneous respiration: measuring air leak buy using a ventilometer and with the patient connected to the mechanical ventilator (test 1); through the display of the mechanical ventilator (test 2); and with ventilometer and the patient detached from the mechanical ventilator (test 3). The air leak around the tracheal tube (TT) was defined as the percentage difference between the inspired tidal volume (insufflated cuff) and exhaled (deflated cuff). The air leak differences between the three tests were evaluated, as well as their correlations to three variables: cuff pressure, TT diameter and intubation time.ResultsStatistically significant (p < 0.05) air leak difference was observed between the tests 1 and 2 in relation to the test 3 in the general and regarding time intubation below 48h and cuff pressure below 20 cmH2O. Regarding the tube diameter, it had been difference only between tests 2 and 3 for 8.5 mm tubes.ConclusionsThe cuff leak test in spontaneous ventilation seems to be more accurate when the patient is connected to the mechanical ventilator, and that additional studies are needed to determine the real contribution of the test in this ventilation mode to predict laryngeal edema.

2 keywords...

hide…