Mechanical Ventilation

Since most critically ill patients require mechanical ventilation, it is by far the most common form of life-sustaining therapy. As technology has evolved, clinicians have been presented with an increasing number of ventilator options as well as an ever-expanding and confusing list of terms, abbreviations, and acronyms. Unfortunately, this has made it extremely difficult for clinicians at all levels of training to truly understand mechanical ventilation and to optimally manage patients with respiratory failure. Mechanical Ventilation was written to address these problems. This handbook provides students, residents, fellows, and practicing physicians with a clear explanation of essential physiology, terms and acronyms, and ventilator modes and breath types. It describes how mechanical ventilators work and explains clearly and concisely how to write ventilator orders, how to manage patients with many different causes of respiratory failure, how to "wean" patients from the ventilator, and much more. Mechanical Ventilation is meant to be carried and used at the bedside and to allow everyone who cares for critically ill patients to master this essential therapy.CHAPTER 1: ESSENTIAL PULMONARY PHYSIOLOGY ; CHAPTER 2: RESPIRATORY FAILURE AND THE INDICATIONS FOR MECHANICAL VENTILATION ; CHAPTER 3: INSTRUMENTATION AND TERMINOLOGY ; CHAPTER 4: VENTILATOR MODES AND BREATH TYPES ; CHAPTER 5: HOW TO WRITE VENTILATOR ORDERS ; CHAPTER 6: THE BEDSIDE ASSESSMENT OF LUNG FUNCTION ; CHAPTER 7: DYNAMIC HYPERINFLATION AND INTRINSIC PEEP ; CHAPTER 8: PATIENT-VENTILATOR INTERACTIONS AND ASYNCHRONY ; CHAPTER 9: VENTILATOR ALARMS - CAUSES AND EVALUATION ; CHAPTER 10: MECHANICAL VENTILATION AND THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM ; CHAPTER 11: MECHANICAL VENTILATION AND SPECIFIC DISORDERS ; CHAPTER 12: WEANING FROM MECHANICAL VENTILATION ; CHAPTER 13: NON-INVASIVE MECHANICAL VENTILATION ; CHAPTER 14: EXTRACORPOREAL MEMBRANE OXYGENATION