%0 Journal Article
%T Evaluation of the safety of high-frequency chest wall oscillation (HFCWO) therapy in blunt thoracic trauma patients
%A Casandra A Anderson
%A Cassandra A Palmer
%A Arthur L Ney
%A Brian Becker
%A Steven D Schaffel
%A Robert R Quickel
%J Journal of Trauma Management & Outcomes
%D 2008
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1752-2897-2-8
%X Twenty-five blunt thoracic trauma patients were entered into the study. These patients were consented. Each patient was prescribed 2, 15 minute HFCWO treatments per day using The Vest£¿ Airway Clearance System (Hill-Rom, Inc., St Paul, MN). The Vest£¿ system was set to a frequency of 10¨C12 Hz and a pressure of 2¨C3 (arbitrary unit). Physiological parameters were measured before, during, and after treatment. Patients were free to refuse or terminate a treatment early for any reason.No chest tubes, lines, drains or catheters were dislodged as a result of treatment. One patient with flail chest had a chest tube placed after one treatment due to increasing serous effusion. No treatments were missed and continued without further incident. Post treatment survey showed 76% experienced mild or no pain and more productive cough. Thirty days after discharge there were no deaths or hospital re-admissions.This study suggests that HFCWO treatment is safe for trauma patients with lung and chest wall injuries. These findings support further work to demonstrate the airway clearance benefits of HFCWO treatment.Blunt thoracic trauma can result in a variety of bony and non-bony injuries [1]. These patients are often cared for in the intensive care unit (ICU), and frequently require some form of pulmonary support. Mechanical ventilation carries with it risk for additional complications such as atelectasis and ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). Patients requiring intubation often require longer ICU stays [2]. Avoiding mechanical ventilatory support of patients who don't absolutely require it results in a better outcome for these patients [3]. Blunt thoracic trauma patients and patients with flail chest have been treated effectively with bilevel positive pressure (BiPAP), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), or intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV), with improved outcomes resulting from BiPAP and CPAP [2,4]. A recent study of mucociliary clearance in ICU patients demo
%U http://www.traumamanagement.org/content/2/1/8