Mechanical Ventilation

Mechanical ventilation is an essential life-sustaining therapy for many critically-ill patients. 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.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Essential Physiology
Chapter 1: Respiratory mechanics
Chapter 2: Gas exchange
Chapter 3: Cardiovascular-pulmonary interactions
Section 2: The Mechanical Ventilator
Chapter 4: Instrumentation and terminology
Chapter 5: Ventilator modes and breath types
Chapter 6: Ventilator alarms - causes and evaluation
Section 3: Patient Management
Chapter 7: Respiratory failure and the indications for mechanical ventilation
Chapter 8: How to write ventilator orders
Chapter 9: Physiologic assessment of the mechanically-ventilated patient
Chapter 10: Dynamic hyperinflation and intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure
Chapter 11: Patient-ventilator interactions and asynchrony
Chapter 12: Acute respiratory distress syndrome
Chapter 13: Severe obstructive lung disease
Chapter 14: Right ventricular failure
Chapter 15: Discontinuing mechanical ventilation
Chapter 16: Non-invasive mechanical ventilation

John W. Kreit, Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, and Series edited by John A. Kellum, Professor of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. John W. Kreit is professor of medicine and anesthesiology in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His career has been devoted to the education of students, residents, and fellows. He is the former director of the fellowship training program in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and was the recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Educator Award from the American Thoracic Society.