Respiratory research holds implications for suction catheter use

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
January 13, 2014

Researchers in the College of Health Professions at Texas State University have published an article that will have bench top clinical applications for respiratory care.

Department of Respiratory Care associate professors Chris Russian and Joshua Gonzalez, along with assistant professor Nicholas Henry published "Suction Catheter Size: An Assessment and Comparison of 3 Different Calculation Methods" in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Respiratory Care.

Current American Association for Respiratory Care clinical practice guidelines recommend a suction catheter to endotracheal tube ratio (SC/ETT) based on the external diameter of the suction catheter and the internal diameter of the endotracheal tube. The researchers show that volume and area calculations provide an alternative method for determining the SC/ETT ratio that is comparable in effectiveness to current methods.

The article abstract may be found at http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/59/1/32.abstract.