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Published on: March 24, 2014

Suctioning and length of stay in infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis

Grant M Mussman1, Michelle W Parker, Angela Statile

  • 1Divisions of Hospital Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. grant.mussman@cchmc.org

JAMA Pediatrics
|March 6, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Deep suctioning and long intervals between suctioning in infants with bronchiolitis are linked to longer hospital stays (LOS). Optimizing suctioning practices may reduce LOS for these common childhood respiratory illnesses.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Respiratory Medicine
  • Clinical Outcomes Research

Background:

  • Infant hospitalizations for bronchiolitis are frequent and resource-intensive.
  • Supportive care, including nasal suctioning, is a common treatment for bronchiolitis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between suctioning device type and prolonged suctioning intervals (greater than 4 hours) within 24 hours of admission.
  • To determine the impact of these factors on length of stay (LOS) in hospitalized infants with bronchiolitis.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective cohort study utilizing electronic health record data.
  • Analysis of 740 infants aged 2-12 months hospitalized with bronchiolitis.
  • Examined the relationship between deep suctioning percentage, suctioning lapses, and hospital LOS.

Main Results:

  • Increased deep suctioning was associated with a longer LOS (geometric mean 2.35 days vs. 1.75 days).
  • Longer lapses between suctioning events showed a dose-dependent increase in LOS (geometric mean 2.64 days for 3-4 lapses vs. 1.62 days for no lapses).

Conclusions:

  • Deep suctioning within 24 hours of admission and suctioning lapses exceeding 4 hours are associated with increased LOS in infants with bronchiolitis.
  • These findings suggest that optimizing suctioning protocols may reduce hospital LOS for infants with bronchiolitis.
Abstract

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