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CASE REPORT article

Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1505114
This article is part of the Research Topic Non-pharmacologic Approaches to Inflammation in the Critically Ill View all 4 articles

Electrical impedance tomography guided ventilator weaning in obese patient with severe pneumonia: A case report

Provisionally accepted
Liu Yu Xia Liu Yu Xia Liu Rui Liu Rui *Li Bin Li Bin Cai Li Bi Cai Li Bi Hou Jie Qi Hou Jie Qi Zhao Wei Zhao Wei
  • Zhongshan People's Hospital (ZSPH), Zhongshan, Guangdong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) evaluates lung function by providing continuous, real-time monitoring of regional lung ventilation distribution to guide the restoration of lung ventilation. Obese ventilator-dependent patients often struggle with weaning. This case report highlighted the potential of EIT in guiding ventilator-dependent patients to go offline in an obese patient with severe pneumonia. Case summary: A 23-year-old male obese patient was admitted to Zhongshan People's Hospital in November, 2023 due to progressive dyspnea. He suffered from recurrent fevers, worsened oxygenation, and had a 20+ year history of syringomyelia. Combined with abnormal computed tomography imaging, the discovery of viral infection in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and next generation sequencing results, he was then diagnosed with severe pneumonia. In addition to conventional treatment, EIT was used to guide him through postular changes and ventilation recovery. The EIT-informed prone positioning improved ventilation distribution and facilitated successful ventilator weaning on day 26. The patient was discharged after recovering spontaneous respiratory function. Conclusion: EIT might help ventilator-dependent obese patients achieve tailored targeting to improve ventilatory outcomes.

    Keywords: Electrical impedance tomography, Ventilator Weaning, Pneumonia, respiratory failure, case report

    Received: 02 Oct 2024; Accepted: 11 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xia, Rui, Bin, Bi, Qi and Wei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Liu Rui, Zhongshan People's Hospital (ZSPH), Zhongshan, 528403, Guangdong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.