• Dane Nichols and Sai Haranath.
• Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Mailcode UHN-67, Portland, OR 97239, USA. nicholda@ohsu.edu
• Crit Care Clin. 2007 Apr 1;23(2):183-99, viii-ix.

AbstractAs mechanical ventilators become increasingly sophisticated, clinicians are faced with a variety of ventilatory modes that use volume, pressure, and time in combination to achieve the overall goal of assisted ventilation. Although much has been written about the advantages and disadvantages of these increasingly complex modalities, currently there is no convincing evidence of the superiority of one mode of ventilation over another. Pressure control ventilation may offer particular advantages in certain circumstances in which variable flow rates are preferred or when pressure and volume limitation is required. The goal of this article is to provide clinicians with a fundamental understanding of the dependent and independent variables active in pressure control ventilation and describe features of the mode that may contribute to improved gas exchange and patient-ventilator synchronization.

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