The effect of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation or airway pressure release ventilation on children with acute respiratory distress syndrome as a rescue therapy.

Background: To investigate the effects of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) or airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) as a rescue therapy on children with moderate and severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 47 children with ARDS who were transitioned from synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation (SIMV) to either HFOV or APRV for 48 h or longer after failure of SIMV. The parameters of demographic data, arterial blood gases, ventilator settings, oxygenation index (OI), and PaO/FiO (PF) ratio during the first 48 h of HFOV and APRV were recorded.

Results: There was no significant difference between the HFOV and APRV groups with survival rates of 60% and 72.7%, respectively. Compared to pre-transition, the mean airway pressures at 2 and 48 h after transition were higher in both groups (P<0.01), and the PF ratio at 2 and 48 h in both modes was significantly improved (P<0.001). PF ratio and PaCO have significant differences at 48 h between two groups. The OI at 2 h after transition had no improvement in either group and was substantially lower at 48 h relative to the pre-transition level (P<0.001) in both groups. At 48 h after the transition to both HFOV and APRV, the survivors had lower mean airway pressures, higher PF ratios, and a lower OIs than non-survivors (P<0.01).

Conclusions: There was no significant difference on the survival rates of HFOV and APRV application as a rescue therapy for ARDS, but improved oxygenation at 48 h reliably discriminated survivors from non-survivors in both groups.