Open Access

REVIEW

Toward an optimized strategy of using various airway mucus clearance techniques to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients

MINGZHI LUO^*, KAI NI, YAN SUN, JIA GUO, KANG WEN, LINHONG DENG^*

Changzhou Key Laboratory of Respiratory Medical Engineering, Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China

* Corresponding Authors: MINGZHI LUO. Email: ; LINHONG DENG. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(4), 855-871. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.017520

Received 16 May 2020; Accepted 23 September 2021; Issue published 15 December 2021

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is still threatening the human life and society throughout the world. For those critically ill patients, mechanical ventilation (MV) is essential to provide life support during treatment. However, both the virus infection and MV disrupt the balance between secretion and elimination of airway mucus and lead to mucus accumulation in the lung. Postmortem examination verified that the lungs in patients died of COVID-19 are indeed filled with sticky mucus, suggesting a great need to improve airway mucus clearance in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Therefore, it may be helpful to comprehensively review the current understanding regarding the changes of biochemical and rheological features of airway mucus associated with the disease, as well as the physiological principles and algorithm to decide airway clearance techniques suitable for the critically ill COVID-19 patients. Based on these considerations, optimized strategies may be developed to eliminate the airway mucus accumulated in the airways of critically ill COVID-19 patients.

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