Regional ventilation in spontaneously breathing COVID-19 patients during postural maneuvers assessed by Electrical Impedance Tomography.

BACKGROUND: Gravity-dependent positioning therapy is an established concept in the treatment of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and improves oxygenation in spontaneously breathing patients with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure. In patients with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19), this therapy seems to be less effective. Electrical impedance tomography as a point-of-care functional imaging modality for visualizing regional ventilation can possibly help identify patients who might benefit from positioning therapy and guide those maneuvers in real-time. Therefore, in this prospective observational study, we aimed to discover typical patterns in response to positioning maneuvers. METHODS: Distribution of ventilation in ten healthy volunteers and in twelve patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure due to corona virus disease 2019 was measured in supine, left and right lateral position using electrical impedance tomography. RESULTS: In this study patients with corona virus disease 2019 showed a variety of ventilation patterns, which were not predictable, whereas all but one healthy volunteer showed a typical and expected gravity-dependent distribution of ventilation with the body positions. CONCLUSION: Distribution of ventilation and response to lateral positioning are variable and thus unpredictable in spontaneously breathing patients with corona virus disease 2019. Electrical impedance tomography might add useful information on the immediate reaction to postural maneuvers and should be elucidated further in clinical studies. Therefore, we suggest a customized individualized positioning therapy guided by electrical impedance tomography.