Patients with severe acquired brain injury (sABI) frequently exhibit pulmonary complications, with atelectasis and/or consolidation of the lower lobes. The atelectasis in critically ill patients is a risk factor for pneumonia and increase the possibility to develop dysventilation syndrome with consequent negative impacts on gas exchanges.~To the best of our knowledge, there is no study investigating the use of the two devices for the treatment of atelectasis in the specific population of non-cooperative tracheostomized patients with sABI who had been spontaneously breathing with no mechanical ventilation support.
Investigators conduced in the Neurological Rehabilitation Unit of the IRCCS S.Maria Nascente - Fondazione Don Gnocchi, (Milan) a retrospective study on 19 patients hospitalized between September 2018 and February 2021, with the aim of comparing the efficacy of the two devices, MetaNeb® and Intrapulmonary Percussion Ventilation (IPV®).~The efficacy was evaluated considering the change of various measures after two weeks of treatment. The main outcome considered is the atelectasis score, assigned by two radiologists who blindly and retrospectively evaluated it on high-resolution computed tomography (HRTC) images