Linking the development of ventilator-induced injury to mechanical function in the lung.

Management of ALI/ARDS involves supportive ventilation at low tidal volumes (V t) to minimize the rate at which ventilator induced lung injury (VILI) develops while the lungs heal. However, we currently have few details to guide the minimization of VILI in the ALI/ARDS patient. The goal of the present study was to determine how VILI progresses with time as a function of the manner in which the lung is ventilated in mice.

Quantifying the roles of tidal volume and PEEP in the pathogenesis of ventilator-induced lung injury.

Management of patients with acute lung injury (ALI) rests on achieving a balance between the gas exchanging benefits of mechanical ventilation and the exacerbation of tissue damage in the form of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Optimizing this balance requires an injury cost function relating injury progression to the measurable pressures, flows, and volumes delivered during mechanical ventilation. With this in mind, we mechanically ventilated naive, anesthetized, paralyzed mice for 4 h using either a low or high tidal volume (Vt) with either moderate or zero positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP).