Change in stroke volume during alveolar recruitment maneuvers through transient continuous positive airway pressure or stepwise increase in positive end expiratory pressure in anesthetized patients: a prospective randomized double-blind study.

Purpose: Intraoperative alveolar recruitment maneuvers (ARM) used during protective ventilation strategy may have severe adverse hemodynamic effects, reported mainly during abrupt continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Stepwise increase and decrease in positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) may be used. We compared the hemodynamic effects of these two maneuvers.