Closed Suction System

Closed sys­tems for suc­tion­ing the air­ways of mechan­i­cal­ly ven­ti­lat­ed patients are of immense impor­tance in terms of safe­ty for both patients and med­ical per­son­nel. Each time the cir­cuit is opened, med­ical staff are exposed to poten­tial­ly infec­tious mate­r­i­al car­ried by air par­ti­cles, which also rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant risk fac­tor for cross-infec­tions.  

Patient safe­ty is also at risk when using open suc­tion sys­tems. Dis­con­nect­ing the res­pi­ra­to­ry cir­cuit can lead to hypox­emia, atelec­ta­sis, or lack of lung re-expan­sion. Dis­con­nect­ing the res­pi­ra­to­ry cir­cuit for catheter replace­ment, bron­choscopy, and Mini-BAL are clas­si­fied as high-risk pro­ce­dures [1,2]. [1,2].      

The answer to these chal­lenges is closed suc­tion sys­tems, which allow for pro­ce­dures such as suc­tion­ing, bron­choscopy, and drug admin­is­tra­tion with­out the need to dis­con­nect the res­pi­ra­to­ry cir­cuit. This solu­tion also enables catheter replace­ment with­out open­ing the cir­cuit, there­by help­ing to min­i­mize the risk of expos­ing staff to pathogens from the patien­t’s air­ways.  

[1] Ofn­er M, Lem M, Sar­w­al S, et al, for the SARS Inves­tiga­tive Team, Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol. Clus­ter of severe acute res­pi­ra­to­ry syn­drome cas­es among pro­tect­ed health care­work­ers, Toron­to, Can­da, April 2003, MMWR Morb Mor­tal Wkly Rep 2003;52(19):433–6. 

[2] Loeb M, McGeer A, Hen­ry B, Ofn­er M, Rose D, Hly­wka T, Levie J, McQueen J, Smith S, Moss L, Smith A, Green K, Wal­ter SD SARS among crit­i­cal care nurs­es, Toron­to. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Feb;10(2):251–5