Mucolytics for Intubated Asthmatic Children: A National Survey of United Kingdom Paediatric Intensive Care Consultants
Table 1
Summary of survey questions and responses.
What is your title? ()
Head of department or clinical lead
15%
Other PICU consultants
85%
An asthmatic child has been intubated and admitted to your PICU with acute, severe asthma: would you prescribe rhDNase? ()
Never
37%
Occasionally
40%
Sometimes
16%
Usually/often
6%
Always
1%
What route of rhDNase administration would you use? ()
Nebulisation (via ETT)
56%
Intratracheal
(i) Blind, diluted with saline
20%
(ii) Bronchoscopic guidance
15%
(iii) Depends on clinical condition
7%
No opinion
2%
If this child were to receive intratracheal rhDNase, what would be the optimal dose? ()
No opinion
44%
2 mg/m2 BSA
4%
4 mg/m2 BSA
0%
0.1 mg/kg
0%
0.2 mg/kg
16%
Other
36%
Would you prescribe/administer intratracheal hypertonic saline? ()
Never
46%
Occasionally
39%
Sometimes
13%
Usually/often
2%
Always
0%
Would you prescribe/administer intratracheal NAC (N-acetylcysteine)? ()
Never
81%
Occasionally
17%
Sometimes
1%
Usually/often
1%
Always
0%
Would you request a chest physiotherapist to treat the patient? ()
Never
1%
Occasionally
15%
Sometimes
18%
Usually/often
29%
Always
37%
Would you be willing to consider enrolling intubated asthmatic patients admitted to your PICU into a rhDNase trial? ()
Yes
87%
No
13%
If an RCT was undertaken in intubated asthmatic children, with one group receiving intratracheal instillation of rhDNase, what intratracheal substance should the control group receive? ()
Placebo (0.9% NaCl)
69%
NAC
4%
Hypertonic saline
15%
Other
12%
Key: “Never” is 0%; “occasionally” is <33% of cases; “sometimes” is 33%–66% of cases; usually/often is >66% of cases; always is 100% of cases.