An overview of patient-ventilator asynchrony in children.

Introduction: Mechanically ventilated children often have patient-ventilator asynchrony (PVA). When a ventilated patient has spontaneous effort, the ventilator attempts to synchronize with the patient, but PVA represents a mismatch between patient respiratory effort and ventilator delivered breaths.

Areas covered: This review will focus on subtypes of patient ventilator asynchrony, methods to detect or measure PVA, risk factors for and characteristics of patients with PVA subtypes, potential clinical implications, treatment or prevention strategies, and future areas for research. Throughout this review, we will provide pediatric specific considerations.

Expert opinion: PVA in pediatric patients supported by mechanical ventilation occurs frequently and is understudied. Pediatric patients have unique physiologic and pathophysiologic characteristics which affect PVA. While recognition of PVA and its subtypes is important for bedside clinicians, the clinical implications and risks versus benefits of treatment targeted at reducing PVA remain unknown. Future research should focus on harmonizing PVA terminology, refinement of automated detection technologies, determining which forms of PVA are harmful, and development of PVA-specific ventilator interventions.