Anesthesiology
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Recent studies in healthy mice and rats have reported that positive pressure ventilation delivered with physiological tidal volumes at normal end-expiratory volume worsens lung mechanics and induces cytokine release, thus suggesting that detrimental effects are due to positive pressure ventilation per se. The aim of this study in healthy animals is to assess whether these adverse outcomes depend on the mode of mechanical ventilation. ⋯ Both positive and negative pressure ventilation performed with tidal volumes and timing of spontaneous, quiet breathing neither elicit an inflammatory response nor cause morpho-functional alterations in normal animals, thus supporting the notion of the presence of a critical volume threshold above which acute lung injury ensues. Distortion of lung parenchyma can induce an inflammatory response, even in the absence of volotrauma.