Determining The Effects Of Nasopharyngeal Suction With Negative And Positive Pressure: Randomised Conrolled Trial

Nurses are responsible for suction function to clear the airway from secretions for effective breathing. Suction is defined as the removal of secretions of the respiratory system with a negative pressure vacuum device. In patients who are unable to extract respiratory secretions independently, suction is essential to maintain the oxygen demand and ventilation at the desired level and remove these secretions.

The infant's respiratory and circulatory systems may be adversely affected as a result of the suction procedure, and several complications such as trauma, haemorrhage, and pain may develop. Suction is therefore one of the procedures that should be applied with caution in infants. Suction procedures for the respiratory tract in infants include oro/nasopharyngeal and endotracheal suction and suction methods include open and closed system suction methods.

Oro/nasopharyngeal suction is a method that requires the use of negative pressure to remove secretions from the oropharynx, nasopharynx, or both. When a foreign body penetrates the trachea from the pharynx, when respiratory secretions are too much, or when the secretion cannot be removed by normal cilia movement, coughing holds an important role. Inability to cough leads to atelectasis, pneumonia, and respiratory failure during infection of the respiratory tract. The cough reflex matures around the age of five in children. Adults are able to quickly remove existing airway secretions, but children with excessive airway secretions prior to this age are unable to do so easily. These secretions may be removed through either nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal suction.

There are several risks and complications associated with suction procedure. The most common are hypoxia, bradycardia, tachycardia, hypotension, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, atelectasis, bronchospasm, elevated intracranial pressure, nosocomial infection, tracheobronchial damage, and pain. Hypoxemia is the most prevalent and serious complication among them. To avoid the suction-induced hypoxemia, different suction methods are being developed and novel devices are being employed.Suction, a painful procedure, has been reported to negatively impact the physiological parameters, comfort, sleep, growth, and hospital stay of infants. The primary goal of pain management in infants is to minimise the pain experienced by infants due to various medical procedures and allow them to cope with the pain.

When the literature was reviewed, it was observed that the respiratory rate, heart rate, SpO2 and tidal volumes of the patients were assessed as respiratory parameters, while spirometry was utilized to assess respiratory function.