E-Cigarette or Vaping Product Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) Update

Earlier this season, we shared a special episode to update providers about the growing associations between vaping and more acute, severe lung injury called vaping associated pulmonary injury (VAPI). You can listen to that content from season 3, episode 6. Since that time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have designated a new name for this condition: e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI).

Listen to a pediatric pulmonologist discuss EVALI

In this episode, we are going to circle back to this topic with Robin Deterding, MD, and discuss its rapid evolution during the recent months.

Dr. Deterding is the Chief of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

In this episode, our experts discuss:

• How Dr. Deterding has recently been approaching the topic of vaping in clinic with patients and families
• The importance of active screening of vape use in pediatric offices
• Changes in the epidemiology of the problem
• The new medical term assigned by the CDC: e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI)
• The recent discovery of vitamin E in bronchoalveolar lavages of patients with EVALI and its use as an additive in many of the vaping products
• Likely reasons for the decrease in EVALI cases
• The predicted future of the epidemiology of EVALI
• Changes in the legislative and regulatory space related to vaping in the last few months
• Current recommendations for treating patients who are at risk of lung injury
• The importance of getting a thorough history when evaluating patients to help differentiate between EVALI, the flu and pneumonia
• The possibility of subacute or chronic lung injury that may present differently in patients who vape regularly
• The paraphernalia that parents can look for to determine if their child is vaping.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Update: Interim Guidance for Health Care Professionals Evaluating and Caring for Patients with Suspected E-cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use, US Department of Health and Human Services/Center for Disease Control and Prevention MMWR - January 3, 2020
• Partnership for Drug-Free Kids: What you Need to Know and How to Talk with Your Kids About Vaping
• CDC: Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with the Use of E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products
• Previous Charting Pediatrics Episodes about Vaping:
  • E-Cigarettes and Vaping (S2:E23)
  • Vaping Associated Pulmonary Injury (S3:E6)

Treatment of EVALI at Children’s Colorado

Pediatric pulmonology experts at Children's Colorado are nationally recognized for their work with children who have common and complex breathing problems. Our pediatric pulmonologists, along with other Colorado physicians, pioneered many of the standard practices used to treat and diagnose pediatric respiratory disease today.