Mechanical Ventilation

Mechanical ventilation is a frequently applied and often life–saving strategy in critically ill patients. Paradoxically, ventilation itself has the potential to worsen preexisting lung injury or even cause lung injury. Ventilation–associated lung injury is suggested to result, at least in part through overstretching of aerated lung tissue and tidal recruitment of collapsed lung parts. So-called protective ventilation™ with lower tidal volumes (i.e., tidal volumes of 6 ml/kg Predicted Body Weight (PBW)) aiming at prevention of overstretching of lung tissue is strongly associated with reduced morbidity and mortality of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients with the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), and consequently recommended in international guidelines.

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Last date updated on July, 2025