UCSF

Rationale: Despite lower overall hospitalization rates for asthma in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of pediatric patients receiving intensive care management in the United States. Objectives: To investigate how the use of invasive and noninvasive mechanical ventilation for asthma has changed in the context of an evolving cohort of critically ill pediatric patients with asthma. Methods: We analyzed children admitted to intensive care units for asthma from 2009 through 2019 in the Virtual Pediatric Systems database. Regression analyses were used to evaluate how respiratory support interventions, mortality, and patient characteristics have changed over time. Odds ratios were calculated to determine how patient characteristics were associated with respiratory support needs. Stratified analyses were performed to determine how changing practice patterns may have differed between patient subgroups. Results: There were 67,614 admissions for 56,727 patients analyzed. Intubation occurred in 4.6% of admissions and decreased from 6.9% to 3.4% over time (P < 0.001), whereas noninvasive ventilation as the maximal respiratory support increased from 8.9% to 20.0% (P < 0.001). Over time, the cohort shifted to include more 2- to 6-year-olds and patients of Asian/Pacific Islander or Hispanic race/ethnicity. Although intubation decreased and noninvasive ventilation increased in all subgroups, the changes were most pronounced in the youngest patients and slightly less pronounced for obese patients. Conclusions: In pediatric asthma, use of intubation has halved, whereas use of noninvasive ventilation has more than doubled. This change in practice appears partially related to a younger patient cohort, although other factors merit exploration.