RESEARCH ARTICLE
Use of Nasal Non-Invasive Ventilation with a RAM Cannula in the Outpatient Home Setting
Wilfredo De Jesus Rojas, Cheryl L. Samuels, Traci R. Gonzales, Katrina E. McBeth, Aravind Yadav, James M. Stark, Cindy Jon, Ricardo A. Mosquera*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 11
First Page: 41
Last Page: 46
Publisher ID: TORMJ-11-41
DOI: 10.2174/1874306401711010041
Article History:
Received Date: 07/04/2017Revision Received Date: 17/05/2017
Acceptance Date: 04/07/2017
Electronic publication date: 21/07/2017
Collection year: 2017
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Nasal non-invasive-ventilation (Nasal NIV) is a mode of ventilatory support providing positive pressure to patients via a nasal interface. The RAM Cannula is an oxygen delivery device that can be used as an alternative approach to deliver positive pressure. Together they have been successfully used to provide respiratory support in neonatal in-patient settings.
Objective:
To describe the outpatient use of Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula as a feasible alternative for home respiratory support in children with chronic respiratory failure.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective case series of 18 children (4 months to 19 years old) using the Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula in the Pediatric Pulmonary Clinic at the McGovern Medical School, UTHealth (2014-16). Consideration for Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula utilization included: inability to wean-off in-patient respiratory support, comfort for dyspnea, intolerability of conventional mask interfaces and tracheostomy avoidance.
Results:
Average age was 7 years. 50% were Caucasian, 38% African-American and 11% Hispanics. Pulmonary disorders included: chest wall weakness (38%), central control abnormalities (33%), obstructive lung disease (16%) and restrictive lung disease (11%). Indications for Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula initiation included: CPAP/BPAP masks intolerability (11%), dyspnea secondary to chest wall weakness (38%) and tracheostomy avoidance (50%). Average length of use of Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula was 8.4 months. Successful implementation of Nasal NIV/Ram Cannula was 94%. One patient required a tracheostomy following the use of Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula. Significant decrease in arterial PaCO2 pre and post Nasal NIV/RAM cannula initiation was notable (p=0.001).
Conclusion:
Outpatient use of Nasal NIV/RAM Cannula may prove to be a feasible and save treatment alternative for children with chronic respiratory failure, chest wall weakness, dyspnea and traditional nasal/face mask intolerance to avoid tracheostomy.
