Adolescent E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury in the Delaware Valley: A Review of Hospital-Based Presentation, Management, and Outcomes

Sarah Schaffer; Abigail Strang; David Saul; Vijay Krishnan; Aaron Chidekel

doi:10.7759/cureus.21988

Adolescent E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury in the Delaware Valley: A Review of Hospital-Based Presentation, Management, and Outcomes

Cureus. 2022 Feb 7;14(2):e21988. doi: 10.7759/cureus.21988. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

Sarah Schaffer¹, Abigail Strang¹, David Saul², Vijay Krishnan³, Aaron Chidekel¹

Affiliations

¹ Pulmonology, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware, Wilmington, USA.
² Radiology, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware, Wilmington, USA.
³ Radiology, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, USA.

Abstract

E-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) remains a major concern due to ongoing use of nicotine and/or cannabis-containing products and resulting acute lung injury. There are few published reports describing the clinical features, comorbidities, severity of disease, and outcomes of treatment in adolescents. This report describes the experience of a single tertiary care children's hospital in the Delaware Valley and reviews data from all patients diagnosed with EVALI in the emergency department and inpatient setting from July 2019 to June 2021 at the Nemours Children's Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. Demographic, clinical, therapeutic, diagnostic features, and outcomes are presented. Abstinence and steroids improved outcomes in our population. Obtaining a vaping history, negative infectious testing, elevated inflammatory markers, and characteristic computed tomography findings were key to making the diagnosis of EVALI.

Keywords: acute lung injury; adolescent cannabis use; adolescent nicotine use; e-cigarette; vaping.