The lung-protective mechanical ventilation strategy has been standard practice for management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) for more than a decade. Observational data, small randomized studies and two recent systematic reviews suggest that lung protective ventilation is both safe and potentially beneficial in patients who do not have ARDS at the onset of mechanical ventilation. ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To review as best the critical care clinicians can recruit the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) lungs and keep the lungs opened, assuring homogeneous ventilation, and to present the experimental and clinical results of these mechanical ventilation strategies, along with possible improvements in patient outcome based on selected published medical literature from 1972 ...

Hypoxemia remains a well-described occurrence during one-lung ventilation.1 We recently observed unexpected refractory hypoxemia ventilation in previously healthy nonsmoking 30-yr-old female undergoing left thoracotomy the right lateral decubitus position to facilitate complex descending aorta subclavian/carotid artery bypass grafting treat upper limb and cerebral ischemia resulting from Takaya...

BACKGROUND Double-lumen tubes (DLTs) are frequently used to establish one-lung ventilation (OLV). Their correct placement is crucial. We hypothesized that electrical impedance tomography (EIT) reliably displays distribution of ventilation between left and right lung and may thus be used to verify correct DLT placement online. METHODS Regional ventilation was studied by EIT in 40 patients requ...

A combination of helium and oxygen (heliox) can facilitate gas exchange and limit peak inspiratory pressures through reduced resistance to gas flow and decreased turbulent flow. The combination of these gases has been used for a variety of upper and lower airway conditions, including patients who were spontaneously breathing, receiving noninvasive ventilation, as well as during mechanical venti...

THE lung is a large organ (over 30 cm in height, in man) perfused with blood at a relatively low pressure. Thus the influence of gravity on the distribution of blood flow and ventilation is considerable. In normal lungs significant differences in perfusion, ventilation and ventilation/perfusion ratio exist between apex and base (West 1g62), and in disease mismatching of ventilation and perfusio...

Lung inflammatory responses in the absence of infection are considered to be one of primary mechanisms of ventilator-induced lung injury. Here, we determined the role of calpain in the pathogenesis of lung inflammation attributable to mechanical ventilation. Male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to high (28 ml/kg) tidal volume ventilation for 2 h in the absence and presence of calpain inhibitor I (...

BACKGROUND It has been proposed that partial liquid ventilation (PLV) causes a compression of the pulmonary vasculature by the dense perfluorocarbons and a subsequent redistribution of pulmonary blood flow from dorsal to better-ventilated middle and ventral lung regions, thereby improving arterial oxygenation in situations of acute lung injury. METHODS After induction of acute lung injury by ...