Respiratory failure often requires treatment with mechanical ventilation to decrease the work of breathing and reverse severe hypoxemia and respiratory acidosis. There are two general classes of mechanical ventilation: noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and conventional mechanical ventilation. NIV, administered through a tightly fitting nasal or facial mask, is widely used in acute-on-chronic respiratory failure related to COPD exacerbations. NIV typically involves a preset positive pressure applied during inspiration and a lower pressure applied during expiration; it is associated with fewer complications such as nosocomial pneumonia than conventional mechanical ventilation through an endotracheal tube. However, NIV is contraindicated in cardiopulmonary arrest, severe encephalopathy, severe GI hemorrhage, hemodynamic instability, unstable coronary artery disease, facial surgery or trauma, upper airway obstruction, inability to protect the airway, and inability to clear secretions.
Most pts with acute respiratory failure require conventional mechanical ventilation via a cuffed endotracheal tube. The goal of mechanical ventilation is to optimize oxygenation while avoiding ventilator-induced lung injury. Various modes of conventional mechanical ventilation are commonly used; different modes are characterized by a trigger (what the ventilator senses to initiate a machine-delivered breath), a cycle (what determines the end of inspiration), and limiting factors (operator-specified values for key parameters that are monitored by the ventilator and not allowed to be exceeded). Three of the common modes of mechanical ventilation are described below; additional information is provided in Table 15-1.
Other modes of ventilation may be appropriate in specific clinical situations; for example, pressure-control ventilation is helpful to regulate airway pressures in pts with barotrauma or in the postoperative period from thoracic surgery.
Section 2. Medical Emergencies