[Usefulness of helmet type mask in the treatment of postoperative atelectasis in a child: a case report].
A 7-year-old autistic girl underwent an appendectomy under general anesthesia. Both intraoperative course and postoperative one following extubation were uneventful;however, she suddenly developed severe hypoxemia caused by massive atelectasis in the right and lower lobes 27 hours after the operation. With a helmet type mask on her face, she was successfully managed with continuous positive airway pressure (noninvasive positive pressure ventilation) mode, in which PEEP level was 5 cmH2O and FI(O2) was 0.38. Compared with the face mask type, the helmet type has the advantage of better stability on the face without losing sight, and less discomfort with fixation. In spite of a slight difficulty in setting up the device and noise to the patient, the helmet type mask seems to be more useful in the treatment of respiratory distress in pediatric patients.
Department of Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine, Tannan Regional Medical Center Sabae 916-8515.
Yoshikazu
Y
Takinami
D001062:Appendectomy; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008397:Masks; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000628:therapy; D001261:Pulmonary Atelectasis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*