Ventilator Management

This module uses the "Dominate the Vent" podcast from Dr. Scott Weingart's EMCRIT website.  We recommend you listen to both parts of this excellent and engaging podcast, and/or review the linked article on ventilator management.  You may use his "cheat sheet" as a reference as well. This is a lot of material and counts as a sort of "double module." However, most of the EMCRIT resources are there to give you some redundancy and different ways to learn the same thing.

There will be a question or two on non-invasive ventilation, don't try to devour the whole post I have linked but I want you to be aware of the basic differences between high-flow nasal cannula, BIPAP and CPAP, and some initial settings. BiPap in particular is a very useful tool for asthma or COPD (among other things) that a 731 impact vent can run. You should pay attention in the linked post to contraindications to non-invasive: know when you need to switch to a definitive airway and put a patient on the vent.

Your terminal learning objectives for this section:

  • Understand the two basic strategies for initial ventilator management

  • Understand the goal of the lung protective strategy

  • Understand the critical differences in ventilator settings for lung protective patients vs obstructive patients.

  • Understand the various adjustments that may be required to ventilator settings early in ventilator management.

  • Understand some basic types of non-invasive ventilation, some initial settings, and when they are indicated/contraindicated.

https://emcrit.org/emcrit/vent-part-1/

https://emcrit.org/emcrit/vent-part-2

https://www.mdcalc.com/ideal-body-weight-adjusted-body-weight

https://emcrit.org/pulmcrit/bipap-hfnc/