Comparison of Nebulized Budesonide and Intravenous Dexamethasone Efficacy on Tracheal Tube Cuff Leak in Intubated Patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit

Background: Tracheal intubation is a common action in intensive care unit (ICU); however, it may cause laryngeal edema or laryngotracheal injury which leads to edema. The cuff-leak test is usually done to define the upper airway patency. Considering the point that laryngeal edema would be treated by anti-inflammatory agents, our aim was to evaluate the impact of nebulized budesonide on ICU patients’ relief and comparison between nebulized budesonide efficacy and intravenous (IV) dexamethasone. Materials and Methods: In our clinical trial, 270 intubated patients from ICU were randomly selected and divided into three groups (each group was included 90 patients) as follows: IV dexamethasone, nebulized budesonide, and placebo group. All the patients were monitored at 0, 12, 24, 36, and 48 h of starting follow-up. Hemodynamic parameters and cuff-leak ratio were measured and data were analyzed using SPSS (ver. 20). Results: Our findings revealed that dexamethasone and budesonide treatment approaches were beneficial for an increase of cuff-leak volume ( P < 0.001). Furthermore, the superiority of mentioned methods in patients’ relief was significant compared with placebo group ( P < 0.001). Moreover, hemodynamic parameters were not altered and were within the normal range in both dexamethasone and budesonide groups ( P > 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that the use of budesonide and dexamethasone is beneficial in intubated ICU patients, and the above-mentioned approaches can reduce the complications of tracheal intubation. Furthermore, budesonide could be a trustworthy substitute treatment strategy instead of IV dexamethasone.