• Guillaume Mortamet, Alexandrine Larouche, Laurence Ducharme-Crevier, Olivier Fléchelles, Gabrielle Constantin, Sandrine Essouri, Amélie-Ann Pellerin-Leblanc, Jennifer Beck, Christer Sinderby, Philippe Jouvet, and Guillaume Emeriaud.
• Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, CHU Sainte-Justine, 3175 Côte Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, QC, Canada.
• Ann Intensive Care. 2017 Dec 20; 7 (1): 122.

BackgroundWe aimed (1) to describe the characteristics of patient-ventilator asynchrony in a population of critically ill children, (2) to describe the risk factors associated with patient-ventilator asynchrony, and (3) to evaluate the association between patient-ventilator asynchrony and ventilator-free days at day 28.MethodsIn this single-center prospective study, consecutive children admitted to the PICU and mechanically ventilated for at least 24 h were included. Patient-ventilator asynchrony was analyzed by comparing the ventilator pressure curve and the electrical activity of the diaphragm (Edi) signal with (1) a manual analysis and (2) using a standardized fully automated method.ResultsFifty-two patients (median age 6 months) were included in the analysis. Eighteen patients had a very low ventilatory drive (i.e., peak Edi < 2 µV on average), which prevented the calculation of patient-ventilator asynchrony. Children spent 27% (interquartile 22-39%) of the time in conflict with the ventilator. Cycling-off errors and trigger delays contributed to most of this asynchronous time. The automatic algorithm provided a NeuroSync index of 45%, confirming the high prevalence of asynchrony. No association between the severity of asynchrony and ventilator-free days at day 28 or any other clinical secondary outcomes was observed, but the proportion of children with good synchrony was very low.ConclusionPatient-ventilator interaction is poor in children supported by conventional ventilation, with a high frequency of depressed ventilatory drive and a large proportion of time spent in asynchrony. The clinical benefit of strategies to improve patient-ventilator interactions should be evaluated in pediatric critical care.

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