Automatic Apnea Time Adjustments During Ventilation With Automode.

Background: Automode is a feature on Servo ventilators that automatically switches between mandatory and spontaneous breaths. Spontaneous breaths suppress mandatory breaths until apnea. The period from the last spontaneous breath to the first mandatory breath is automatically adjusted by a calculated apnea time limit based on a maximum apnea time setting, the mandatory breathing frequency setting, and the spontaneous breath count.

Bedside Assessment of Lung Recruitability: Making Sense of the Recruitment-to-Inflation Ratio.

Determination of optimum PEEP levels remains an elusive goal. One factor is the recruitability of the lung, yet this is another difficult determination. Recently, a simple bedside technique, called the recruitment-to-inflation ratio, has been described and validated by comparison to the dual pressure-volume curve method.