Bronchoscopic Airway Clearance for Improving Lung Aeration in Mechanically Ventilated Patients With Atelectasis

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether bedside flexible bronchoscopy-guided airway clearance can improve lung aeration in adult patients who are receiving invasive mechanical ventilation and have atelectasis with a high airway secretion burden.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does bedside flexible bronchoscopy-guided airway clearance reduce the proportion of nonaerated lung tissue from baseline to day 5? Does this treatment improve other lung aeration measures, respiratory mechanics, arterial blood gas parameters, pulmonary infection score, ventilator-free days, intensive care unit length of stay, and safety outcomes?

Researchers will compare usual airway care plus bedside flexible bronchoscopy-guided airway clearance with usual airway care alone to see if bronchoscopy-guided airway clearance improves lung aeration and clinical outcomes.

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. Participants in the usual care group will receive standard airway management, which may include airway suctioning, postural drainage, humidification, chest physiotherapy, and other routine respiratory care. Participants in the bronchoscopy group will receive the same usual care, plus bedside flexible bronchoscopy-guided airway clearance when predefined criteria for high airway secretion burden are met.

Participants will have clinical assessments during the study, including chest imaging, respiratory mechanics measurements, arterial blood gas tests, pulmonary infection score assessment, and safety monitoring. The main assessment will compare quantitative chest computed tomography findings at baseline and day 5 to evaluate changes in nonaerated lung tissue.

Conditions

• Atelectasis
• Mechanical Ventilation

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Flexible Bronchoscopy-Guided Airway Clearance

Bedside flexible bronchoscopy-guided airway clearance will be performed through the artificial airway in mechanically ventilated participants. The procedure will be used to inspect the tracheobronchial tree and remove retained airway secretions or mucus plugs by targeted suctioning. Small-volume saline lavage may be used when secretions are thick or difficult to remove. The intervention will be performed in addition to usual airway care when predefined criteria for high airway secretion burden are met. After the procedure, ventilator settings will be restored according to the study protocol and the participant's clinical condition.

OTHER

Usual Airway Care

Usual airway care may include airway suctioning, postural drainage, chest physiotherapy, mechanical airway clearance techniques, humidification and heating of inhaled gas, cuff pressure monitoring, and timely clearance of airway secretions according to routine clinical practice.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Southeast University, China

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ling Liu, PHD · Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-06-01

Primary Completion

2027-12-31

Completion

2028-06-01