Combined bronchial lavage with mechanical ventilation in sever asthma: A report of 28 cases

Objective To study the effect of combining bronchial lavage with mechanical ventilation in patients with sever asthma. Methods In 35 patients with severe asthma whohad noobvious remission after routine treatment, artificial airway were established to enforce mechanical ventilation. The 28 patients with no obvious improvement in clinical symptom but still keeping high airway pressure after 4 ～6 hours, mechanical ventilation the fibronchoscopic bronchial lavage were performed to clear respiratory sputum and inject drugs. Results After bronchial lavage, the clinical symptoms obviously improved, the airway resistance decreased gradually, and the blood gas improved gradually in all the 28 cases. Of 28 patients, 25 (89.29 %) were cured finally, and 3 patients died, 1 died from severe infection, and 2 died from heart failure. The average weaning time was (3.7 ±2.0) d, and the average achieving cure time was (6.1 ±2.0) d. Conclusion Combined bronchial lavage with mechanical ventilation is an effective approach for treatment of severe asthma.