“Efficiency of Delivering Oxygen by Nasal Canulas with Different Methods in Infants with Chronic Pulmonary Disease (CPD)”

There is scarce information about the efficiency and the cost of delivering oxygen by nasal cannulas in infants with CPD. We compared two methods of delivering oxygen in 10 babies with CPD: 1 “moustache support” vs nasal prongs, measuring the inspired fraction of oxygen in the hypopharinge(FhO₂) at flow divided in aliquots of 0.125 liters/minute vs. flowmeter 2: oxygen flow divided in aliquots of 1 liter/minute. In addit on, the quality of the technique of delivering oxygen by nasal cannulas in 32 children with CPD was evaluated. Differences the therapeutic efficiency and the FhO₂ between the oxygen delivered by “moustache support” or nasal prongs at the same predetermited flows were not observed.Table Flowmeter 1 could decrease the oxygen flow required in 0.625 liters/minute compared to flowmeter 2 for getting the same therapeutic result (HbO₂ saturation 92%). The high cost of flowmeter is compensated by the saving of oxygen when using this device. The hipothetical saving of delivering oxygen with flowmeter 1 was 5470 dollars per years for infants admitted with CPD in our hospital.

Table 1