Intensive care medicine
-
Intensive care medicine · Aug 1996
Haemodynamic and respiratory conditions during alternating and synchronous ventilation of both lungs.
We tested the hypothesis that mean thoracic expansion (and mean lung volume) is lower during alternating ventilation (AV), i.e. ventilation of both lungs with a phase shift of half a ventilatory cycle, compared to synchronous ventilation (SV) of both lungs. As a consequence, intrathoracic pressure will be lower, causing lower, central venous pressure and higher cardiac output. ⋯ Our data verified the hypothesis. The lower oesophageal (series 1), pericardial (series 2) and central venous pressures during AV compared to SV could be explained by the smaller thoracic expansion due to the lower mean lung volume, which was attributed to compression of the opposite lung by the, expansion of the inflated lung.