Kinetic therapy improves oxygenation in critically ill pediatric patients.

Objective: To compare changes in oxygenation after manual turning and percussion (standard therapy) and after automated rotation and percussion (kinetic therapy).

Design: Randomized crossover trial.

Setting: General and cardiac pediatric intensive care units.

Patients: Intubated and mechanically ventilated pediatric patients who had an arterial catheter and no contraindications to using a PediDyne bed.

Interventions: Patients were placed on a PediDyne bed (Kinetic Concepts) and received 18 hrs blocks of standard and kinetic therapy in an order determined by randomization.

Measurements And Main Results: Arterial blood gases were measured every 2 hrs during each phase of therapy. Oxygenation index and arterial-alveolar oxygen tension difference [P(A-a)O(2)] were calculated. Indexes calculated at baseline and after each 18-hr phase of therapy were analyzed. Fifty patients were enrolled. Data from 15 patients were either not collected or not used due to reasons that included violation of protocol and inability to tolerate the therapies in the study. Indexes of oxygenation were not normally distributed and were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank testing. Both therapies led to improvements in oxygenation, but only those from kinetic therapy achieved statistical significance. In patients receiving kinetic therapy first, median oxygenation index decreased from 7.4 to 6.19 (p = .015). The median P(A-a)O(2) decreased from 165.2 to 126.4 (p = .023). There were continued improvements in oxygenation after the subsequent period of standard therapy, with the median oxygenation index decreasing to 5.52 and median P(A-a)O(2) decreasing to 116.0, but these changes were not significant (p = .365 and .121, respectively). When standard therapy was first, the median oxygenation index decreased from 8.83 to 8.71 and the median P(a-a)o(2) decreased from 195.4 to 186.6. Neither change was significant. Median oxygenation index after the subsequent period of kinetic therapy was significantly lower (7.91, p = .044) and median P(A-a)O(2) trended lower (143.4, p = .077).

Conclusions: Kinetic therapy is more efficient than standard therapy at improving oxygenation and produces improvements in oxygenation that are more persistent.