We thought that the rate of postoperative pulmonary complications might be higher after pressure-controlled ventilation than after volume-controlled ventilation. We analysed peri-operative data recorded for 109,360 adults, whose lungs were mechanically ventilated during surgery at three hospitals in Massachusetts, USA. We used multivariable regression and propensity score matching. Postoperativ...

Newer ventilators can be set to modes other than the pressure-control and volume-control modes of older machines. In this paper, the authors review several of these alternative modes (adaptive pressure control, adaptive support ventilation, proportional assist ventilation, airway pressure-release ventilation, biphasic positive airway pressure, and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation), explai...

Assisted mechanical ventilation (MV) may be a favorable alternative to controlled MV at the early phase of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), since it requires less sedation, no paralysis and is associated with less hemodynamic deterioration, better distal organ perfusion, and lung protection, thus reducing the risk of ventilator-associated lung injury (VALI). In the present review, we...

Dual-control ventilation modes were introduced with the goal of combining the advantages of volume-control ventilation (constant minute ventilation) and pressure-control ventilation (rapid, variable flow). Dual-control ventilation modes have gained popularity despite little evidence to support routine use. The individual operation and response of the dual-control modes must be understood by the...

OBJECTIVES To understand the role of patient-ventilator asynchrony in the etiology of sleep disruption and determine whether optimizing patient-ventilator interactions by using proportional assist ventilation improves sleep. DESIGN Randomized crossover clinical trial. SETTING A tertiary university medical-surgical intensive care unit. PATIENTS Thirteen patients during weaning from mechani...

Premature delivery, is always associated to the failure of respiratory transition and a delayed achievement of an adequate functional residual capacity. For this reason preterm babies (expecially the Extremely Low for Gestational Age -ELGAinfants) frequently need a respiratory support. Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is widespread used in the management of respiratory distress even in ELGA infan...

The aim of this article is to identify and interpret the data provided by modern ventilators that provide the greatest clinical help in evaluating respiratory mechanics during mechanical ventilation. In intensive care, respiratory mechanics can be assessed in dynamic conditions (no flow-interruption) or static conditions (occlusion techniques) to record compliance and resistance and to monitor ...