(Previous posts: work of breathing, mode of ventilation, ventilator alarms) NOTE: this is NOT a peer-reviewed post (pending) and is continuously under construction on the sinaiem.org website! (Last update: 4/18/20) Airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) was used historically as a rescue mode for ARDS, which is classically characterized by heterogeneous lung injury resulting in uneven [...]
(Previous posts: mode of ventilation, work of breathing) As the ventilator alarm grows louder and louder as you walk closer to the room of the patient you just intubated, you review the "DOPES" mnemonic in your head. Except that in the COVID era, you have to be careful with aerosolization (can't BVM or allow ETT [...]
All of this discussion hinges on understanding the origins of air FLOW. A pressure differential or gradient is the key requirement. Tachypnea is the expected response to lung inflammation that produces stimulation of irritant, stretch, and…
(Previous post reviewed work of breathing, next post: ventilator alarm) Even though we often place patients on "volume-control ventilation", the goal of this post is to precisely define the mode of ventilation, which is often inconsistently or loosely described. It will hopefully serve as the foundation for characterizing other advanced modes. The mode of ventilation [...]
