Articles: respiratory-distress-syndrome.
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Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) occurs in a wide range of adult and pediatric critical care settings. This article provides an overview of ARDS including the controversies in definition, a summary of pathophysiology, diagnosis, clinical presentation, and management options. The article also attempts to emphasize new management options in the management of ARDS, and highlights differences between adults and children.
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Laerdal Infant Resuscitators (Laerdal Medical Co., NY) are commonly used as free-flow oxygen delivery devices during neonatal resuscitation in situations where oxygen but not mechanical ventilation is desired. This study evaluates the performance of these resuscitators as free-flow oxygen devices. Efficiency was measured by comparing oxygen flow entering the resuscitator to oxygen flow delivered by the resuscitator. ⋯ Simulated fiO2 ranged from 0.23 to 0.68 at 5 lpm oxygen flow. We conclude that use of the Laerdal Infant Resuscitator for the delivery of free-flow oxygen, even with the valve assembly removed, generates highly variable patient fiO2. The use of self-inflating bags for delivery of oxygen without manual ventilation should be reconsidered.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 1997
Partial liquid ventilation: a comparison using conventional and high-frequency techniques in an animal model of acute respiratory failure.
To test the hypothesis that high-frequency ventilation (HFV), when compared with conventional techniques, enhances respiratory gas exchange during partial liquid ventilation (PLV). ⋯ Gas exchange was not enhanced during PLV-HFV. Application of HFV with PLV provides no clear acute physiologic advantages to PLV using more conventional techniques.
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Permissive hypercapnia is a ventilatory strategy aimed at avoiding lung volutrauma in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Expiratory washout (EWO) is a modality of tracheal gas insufflation that enhances carbon dioxide removal during mechanical ventilation by reducing dead space. The goal of this prospective study was to determine the efficacy of EWO in reducing the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) in patients with severe ARDS treated using permissive hypercapnia. ⋯ Expiratory washout is an effective and easy-to-use ventilatory modality to reduce PaCO2 and increase pH during permissive hypercapnia. However, it significantly increases airway pressures and lung volume through expiratory flow limitation, reexposing some patients to a risk of lung volutrauma if the extrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure is not substantially reduced.