Mechanical Ventilation

Our lungs have 23 generations of airway branches. Surface area increases as we travel deeper within the lung. The functional unit of the lungs are the alveoli, responsible for oxygenation and ventilation, which together have a surface area of around 70 m². For healthy individuals, total lung capacity (TLC, after…

Patient Self Inflicted Lung Injury (PSILI) is a relatively new concept within mechanical ventilation. It implies that a patient can cause harm to their own lungs, creating barotrauma due to excessive transpulmonary pressure as a result of increased patient respiratory effort. In Pressure Support mechanical ventilation it's not always easy…

An important parameter to guide safe mechanical ventilation is driving pressure. In this article, we learn how to calculate driving pressure, its origin, and most importantly, how to use it in clinical practice. Driving pressure (DP or ΔP) is calculated by taking the difference between the pressure at end inspiration…