The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether the MetaNeb® System can effectively prevent and treat early postoperative atelectasis in adult patients admitted to ICU after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer.
The main question it aims to answer is: can the MetaNeb® system significantly reduce the lung ultrasound score (LUSS) indicating atelectasis on postoperative days 1 and 2? Participants will be randomly assigned to either the standard treatment or MetaNeb group, undergo lung ultrasound and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) assessments on postoperative days 1 and 2, receive at least 4 sessions of MetaNeb therapy on postoperative day 1 if in the intervention group, be monitored for oxygenation indices, ICU stay duration, incidence of mechanical ventilation, need for bronchoscopic intervention, and adverse events like pneumothorax.
Age between 18 and 85 years.
Patients who are scheduled for ICU admission after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer.
Presence of an artificial airway at the time of ICU admission.
Planned ICU stay less than 24 hours.
Patients with contraindications to the use of the MetaNeb® System, or those unable to cooperate due to organic or psychiatric conditions.