A Central and Eastern European Survey On PEEP Titration and Alveolar Recruitment Manoeuvres During Surgery

Lung protective mechanical ventilation (LPV) is associated with a lower incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC). The pathophysiology of ventilator-induced lung injury and the risk factors of PPCs have been widely identified, and a perioperative lung protective concept has been elaborated in the past decades. The three main basic elements of LPV are application of low tidal volumes (TV < 6mL/kg), use of optimal levels of PEEP and regular alveolar recruitment manoeuvres. Despite growing evidence recent studies indicated that the entire intraoperative LPV concept is still not widely implemented in current anaesthesia practice even in high-risk surgical patients. However the use low TV is common, either PEEP individualization, or regular ARM are usually ignored, moreover these elements were considered unnecessary or even harmful and their reason is questioned from time to time.

The aim of this questionnaire-based survey (using Google Forms) is to evaluate the routine use of individual PEEP and regular ARM of Central and Eastern European anaesthesiologists during general anaesthesia, and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

The questionnaire consists of 29 mandatory-to-answer multiple and single choice questions. The first part of the form includes questions about demographics and hospital characteristics. The second part contains questions on the use of individual PEEP titration procedures and the third part includes questions about the use of alveolar recruitment manoeuvres during general anaesthesia.

An invitation letter will be sent to the national associations of anaesthesia of Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. Answers will be collected in Google Forms spreadsheets and will be analyzed using MedCalc Statistical Software (MedCalc Software bvba, Ostend, Belgium).

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary and anonymous. Neither sensitive personal data nor contact information will be collected during the research. There are no known risks associated with this research study; however, as with any online related activity the risk of a breach is always possible.

This research does not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors, and the investigators declare that they do not have any conflict of interest with the work.

This international survey study and questionnaire was approved by Hungarian Medical Research Council (approval nr. 30155-2/2019/EKU, date 01/07/2019).

Inclusion criteria

• All anaesthesiologists accepting to participate the survey

Exclusion criteria

• None