Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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The upper airway is an organ not often investigated. Relatively little is known about its complex functions, and misunderstandings abound. The paper by Thomachot et al in this issue provides an opportunity to ponder on this important organ. Although the main result seems to be negative, the study provides some interesting physiological information on the upper airway and how it works.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Measurement of tracheal temperature is not a reliable index of total respiratory heat loss in mechanically ventilated patients.
Minimizing total respiratory heat loss is an important goal during mechanical ventilation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether changes in tracheal temperature (a clinical parameter that is easy to measure) are reliable indices of total respiratory heat loss in mechanically ventilated patients. ⋯ In intensive care unit (ICU) mechanically ventilated patients, total respiratory heat loss was twice as much with either hydrophobic or hydroscopic HME than with the HH. This suggests that a much greater amount of heat was extracted from the respiratory tract by the HMEs than by the HH. Tracheal temperature, although simple to measure in ICU patients, does not appear to be a reliable estimate of total respiratory heat loss.