Passive stretch of the diaphragm following unilateral phrenic nerve stimulation

To the Editor: Masmoudi et al. [1] reported an exciting pilot study on the beneficial effects of unilateral phrenic nerve stimulation on diaphragm muscle trophicity and structure in mechanically ventilated sheep. They observed that, during 72 h of mechanical ventilation, stimulation sessions of 30 min at 4-h intervals attenuated the development of muscle fibre atrophy in the stimulated hemidiaphragm. Fibres from the unstimulated contralateral hemidiaphragm served as controls. We postulate that, due to the design of the study, the results of Masmoudi et al . …