Inhaled dry salt micro particles in the treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia: a five case series report

Background. Despite current medical ad-vances, to this day there is no single medi-cal intervention to effectively prevent or treat bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in both preterm and term infants. Along with protective ventilation strategies, vari-ous drugs are being used or are being re-searched at this very moment, with the sole purpose of improving the general outcome for these patients. Inhaled dry salt micro particles therapy is now one of them. Materials and methods. This report pre-sents five patients, diagnosed with severe BPD. All of them received, complemen-tary to classical BPD management and respiratory support, continuous inhaled dry salt micro particles, via SaltMed car-tridges, for a period of 12 to 30 days. After only 24 hours of administration, we were able to observe a significant improvement in respiratory function and dynamics. It was possible to use a lower fraction of in-spired oxygen (FiO2), mean airway pres-sure (MAP) and peak inspiratory pressure (PIP) in all mechanically ventilated pa-tients. Higher tidal volumes were recorded and we observed improvement in oxygen-ation indexes.Conclusion. Continuously inhaled dry salt micro particles, administered complemen-tary to classic BPD management, could improve respiratory and overall morbid-ity and mortality in infants with any form of BPD. Further study of these possible effects is needed, as there is no data pub-lished on this matter so far.