Assessment of Ventilation Using Adult and Pediatric Manual Resuscitators in a Simulated Adult Patient.

Background: The bag-valve-mask (BVM) or manual resuscitator bag is used as a first-line technique to ventilate patients with respiratory failure. Volume-restricted manual resuscitator bags (eg, pediatric bags) have been suggested to minimize overventilation and associated complications. There are studies that both support and caution against the use of a pediatric resuscitator bag to ventilate an adult patient. In this study, we evaluated the ability of pre-hospital clinicians to adequately ventilate an adult manikin with both an adult- and pediatric-size manual resuscitator bag without the assistance of an advanced airway or airway adjunct device.

Methods: This study was conducted at an international conference in 2022. Conference attendees with pre-hospital health care experience were recruited to ventilate an adult manikin using a BVM for 1 min with both an adult and pediatric resuscitator bag, without the use of adjunct airway devices, while 6 ventilatory variables were collected or calculated: tidal volume (V), breathing frequency, adequate breaths (V > 150 mL), proportion of adequate breaths, peak inspiratory pressure (PIP), and estimated alveolar ventilation (EAV).

Results: A total of 208 participants completed the study. Ventilation with the adult-sized BVM delivered an average V of 290.4 mL compared to 197.1 mL ( < .001) when using the pediatric BVM. PIP with the adult BVM was higher than with the pediatric BVM (10.6 cm HO vs 8.6 cm HO, < .001). The median EAV with the adult bag (1,138.1 [interquartile range [IQR] 194.0-2,869.9] mL/min) was markedly greater than with the pediatric BVM (67.7 [IQR 0-467.3] mL/min, < .001).

Conclusions: Both pediatric- and adult-sized BVM provided lower ventilation volumes than those recommended by professional guidelines for an adult. Ventilation with the pediatric BVM was significantly worse than with the adult bag when ventilating a simulated adult subject.