Pressure-volume relationship for paediatric cuffed tracheal tube

Define the pressure-volume relationship of the cuff of paediatric cuffed tracheal tubes. Experimental study. The cuff pressure was measured after incremental 0.1 ml filling volumes for 6 sizes (3.0 to 5.5 mm of internal diameter) of paediatric high volume-low pressure cuffed-tracheal tubes. The pressure-volume relationship of the cuff was assessed with and without resistance to the filling. Results were expressed with medium +/- SD. Each increment increased the cuff pressure, without resistance, of 7.3 +/- 1.7 mmHg for sizes 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0, 4.8 +/- 1.6 mmHg for size 4.5, and 2.3 +/- 0.9 mmHg for sizes 5 and 5.5. The resistance decreased the filling volume of the cuff for each size of tracheal tubes. The margin of safety provided by cuff of smallest cuffed tracheal tubes is too small. Then, the smallest sizes (3.0 to 4.5) should not be called low pressure-high volume cuff.