Hyperinflation, hyperventilation, and hyperoxygenation before tracheal suctioning in children requiring long-term...

The findings reported failed to support a best method of pretreating subjects before tracheal suctioning to minimize oxygen desaturation. Conversely, all methods prevented significant desaturation. No subject's desaturation readings dropped during the study to such a point that they did not subsequently recover after 30 seconds and return to baseline by the end of the 20 minutes. Several subjects had oxygen saturation readings in the high 70s to low 80s as reported during CTP. After recovery from CTP ( in mot cases a 30-second time period), no clinically significant desaturation was noted from the 30-second time period to the end of the study. The results could not be reproduced when the trials were repeated on four subjects. If oxygenation is questionable, these children should be monitored noninvasively to prevent serious desaturation in an already compromised patient.