Assessment of Lung Volumes During Liberation From Mechanical Ventilation Using Electrical Impedance Tomography in Children

Children with acute respiratory failure often need a breathing tube attached to a breathing machine, called a mechanical ventilator, to assist their breathing until they can recover. Once the cause of respiratory failure has resolved or improved enough, the breathing tube can be removed, and that is called extubation. The Extubation Readiness Test (ERT) is a simple evaluation commonly performed in the intensive care unit to determine if a child is ready to have the breathing tube removed.

The purpose of this study is to better understand how the ERT and the eventual removal of the breathing tube affect where the air is in the lungs, and whether this can help predict which children will succeed or fail having the breathing tube taken out. This can done be at the bedside with a device called electrical impedance tomograph. This novel device is painless and uses a belt fitted with sensors placed around the chest to show where the air is in the lungs.