Patient comfort during pressure support and volume controlled-continuous mandatory ventilation.

Background: Pressure-support ventilation (PSV) is more comfortable than volume controlled-continuous mandatory ventilation (VC-CMV) in acute hypercapnic respiratory failure, in patients undergoing noninvasive ventilation. Physiologic measurements of patient status have been compared in PSV and VC-CMV in endotracheally intubated patients, but patient perception of comfort has not been measured in this population.

Objective: To determine if PSV is more comfortable than VC-CMV (volume-cycled, flow-limited) in intubated mechanically ventilated patients.