Pneumologie
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Acute lung injury (ALI) is of paramount importance for modern intensive care since it is one of the most frequent conditions necessitating admission to an ICU. ALI is characterised by severe life threatening hypoxemia which is based on ventilation perfusion mismatching within the lung. This is mostly resulting from atelectasis formation due to primary or secondary inflammation of lung tissue. ⋯ Moreover, different technologies and adjunctive therapies have been suggested based on their pathophysiology. All these treatment options will be summarized in this article. Given the clear evidence for protective ventilation and bearing in mind that clinical application of this easy concept is still not widespread we will focus on this aspect.
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Although continuous airway pressure therapy (CPAP) represents the standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) auto-adjusting CPAP (APAP) devices were developed which adapt the treatment pressure to the actual requirement of the patients. The aim of automatic CPAP therapy is to improve the patients' acceptance of positive pressure treatment. The devices react to respiratory flow, flattening of the inspiratory flow contour, snoring, generator speed or the upper airway impedance. ⋯ While titration devices aim at the finding of one single pressure which is fixed to a constant CPAP device, automatic treatment means the chronic use of APAP at home for optimal adaptation of the treatment pressure to the actual requirements of the patient. A high constant CPAP level, huge pressure variability, insufficient compliance with constant CPAP may be indications for APAP treatment. The main reason for automatic titration is the standardisation of the initiation process.