Aerosolized medication is used widely to patients with respiratory illness and admitted in the intensive care unit, and includes bronchodilators, steroids, mucolytics, and antibiotics. Aerosol delivery through a ventilator is influenced by numerous factors from ventilator-related, circuit-related to device-related factors. Aerosolized drug delivery through a ventilator system was studied on bench model with albuterol, yet the results were often overestimated. Only few clinical trials on aerosol delivery deposition were published in the last decades. In addition, inhaled bronchodilators, mucolytics, antibiotics, and steroids are often administered to ventilated patients in the intensive care units in Taiwan, but they are never studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate inhaled bronchodilator and mucolytics (acetylcystine) delivered by a jet nebulizer through a ventilator system to intubated patients.
