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Ed Yeates ReportingNot all kids with serious respiratory complications need to be admitted to a hospital's intensive care. In fact, Utah studies are now underway to see if babies on what is called a C-PAP machine can be effectively treated in a regular pediatric unit.
The C-PAP machine has been used for years on patients with sleep disorders. It produces pressurized air, which keeps air passages open during sleep. A variation of the same C-PAP machine that is used on sleep apnea patients is working very well on small babies with respiratory infections.
Though some parents saw it used for the first time this year to treat complications from influenza, RSV, or other viral infections, the device has been used this way for more than a decade. It's simply a more gentle, breathing aid than the traditional, very invasive ventilator. New studies at Primary Children's Hospital are going even further.
Christopher Maloney, M.D., Critical Care Pediatrics, PCMC: "When the patients got transferred from the floor we put them on C-PAP. They never had to have a breathing tube put down their airway. So the idea was, can we prevent ICU transfer by using C-PAP on the floor."
It's already happening at American Fork Hospital. Babies are on a C-PAP at the small community hospital, instead of being transferred to the intensive care at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. By keeping the infants there, it frees up bed space in the ICU for more serious emergencies.
So, how often can C-PAP replace using a ventilator in these cases?
Dr. Maloney: "We think it can bridge the majority of them. We haven't gone back or have real good data on what the exact number is, but we think it's likely between 75 percent and 90 percent."
Treating a child this way not only prevents damage to the lungs, but being in a pediatric unit setting is also much cheaper than a stay in ICU.
