Historically, suctioning an endotracheal (ET) tube has been used routinely to remove pulmonary secretions that can block an endotracheal tube and impair air exchange in intubated patients of all ages.

Ethical approval is not required for bench-top experiments in our institution. The study was performed using an infant test lung (Michigan Instruments 560li, Grand Rapids, MI) with a maximum volume of ...

Forty-three clinical trials and systematic reviews were identified, of which 14 were initially excluded as they either did not evaluate suctioning specifically or they concerned the adult age group.