BACKGROUND Adaptive-support ventilation (ASV) is a minute ventilation-controlled mode governed by a closed-loop algorithm. With ASV, tidal volume and respiratory rate are automatically adjusted to minimize work of breathing. Studies indicate that ventilation in ASV enables more rapid weaning. The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether ventilation in ASV results in ...

Uncuffed tracheostomy tubes are used for long-term mechanical ventilation in children. However, upper airway mechanics differ between sleep and wakefulness; this may affect air leak around tracheostomies. We studied 19 children with high cervical spinal cord injury on portable positive pressure ventilators, age range birth to 19 years. Ventilator settings were adjusted while awake to achieve Pa...

Twelve patients with the adult respiratory distress syndrome were included in this study and evaluated by transesophageal echocardiography and Doppler, assessing right and left ventricular intracardiac blood flow alterations with progressive increase of inspiration-to-expiration (I-E) ratios. Whereas midpulmonary artery flow parameters did not show any change, early left ventricular filling dem...

A new group of breathing systems, namely the Enclosed Afferent Reservoir (EAR) systems, is described. They allow for the selective elimination of alveolar gas in association with both spontaneous and controlled ventilation. A comparison with the Bain system in controlled ventilation demonstrates greater efficiency in eliminating carbon dioxide. A fresh gas flow (VF) of 70 ml kg-1 min-1 using an...

Introduction Pressure-support ventilation improves lung mechanics, blood gas exchange, hemodynamics, and work of breathing (WOB) in mild acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [1,2]. Nevertheless, those beneficial effects could be dependent of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) applied during mechanical ventilation. So far, no study has compared pressure-support ventilation (PSV) with ...

Ventilation is ambiguously related to the energy saving rationale originating from the mitigation of global warming, the reaching of peak oil or health concerns related to fossil fuel burning. Since it makes up for about half of the energy consumption in well insulated buildings, it is an attractive target for energy saving measures. However, simply reducing ventilation rates has unwanted reper...