Objective To explore the impact of an airway stepwise management strategy in the treatment of hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) in the ultra elderly critically ill patients.

Methods Clinical data on the ultra eldely(≥80 years old) HAP patients at the department of Critied Care Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2021 to April 2023 was retrospective collected, and the enrolled patients were divided into an observation group (January 2022-April 2023) and control group (January 2021-December 2021) according to the airway stepwise management strategy. In the control group, conventional airway manage- ment was used, and in the observation group, an airway stepwise management strategy from simple to complex and from noninvasive to invasive was used. The oxygenation indices before and after airway interventiont, tracheal intubation/tracheostomy rate, and invasive ventilator usage rate was compared in both groups.

Results A total of 61 HAP patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected, including 31 in the observation group and 30 in the control group. Compared with before airway intervention, the arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide gradually decreased, arterial partial pressure of oxygen and oxygenation index gradually increased at 12 h, 48 h and 72 h of airway intervention(all P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the observation group had lower arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide, and higher arterial partial pressure of oxygen and oxygenation index(all P < 0.05), and the rate of tracheal intubation/incision (35.5% vs. 66.7%, P=0.015) and the rate of invasive ventilator use (41.9% vs. 73.3%, P=0.013) were lower in the observation group at 48 h of airway intervention.

Conclusions The application of an airway stepwise management strategy in the ultra elderly HAP patients can significantly improve oxygenation status and reduce iatrogenic trauma.