May 10, 2021
Is overuse of high-flow nasal cannula therapy to blame?
From 2010-2019, the proportion of children admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for bronchiolitis doubled, an increase that was accompanied by a seven-fold increase in the use of non-invasive ventilation (NIV). Despite these increases, however, the rates of invasive mechanical ventilation did not change during the same period, researchers found.
Bronchiolitis is the most common lower respiratory illness in young kids, making up nearly 20% of U.S. hospitalizations in children less than 2 years of age. However, as interest in NIV—and particularly high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy—has grown in recent years, care patterns for pediatric bronchiolitis seem to be shifting, with drops in hospitalization rates and simultaneous increases in ICU admission. And, as Jonathan H. Pelletier, MD, of the Department of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues explained in