RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Peak Pressures During Manual Ventilation
JF Respiratory Care
FD American Association for Respiratory Care
SP 340
OP 344
VO 50
IS 3
A1 Turki, Mohamed
A1 Young, Michael P
A1 Wagers, Scott S
A1 Bates, Jason HT
YR 2005
UL http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/50/3/340.abstract
AB INTRODUCTION: Manual (bag) ventilation sometimes achieves better oxygenation than does a mechanical ventilator. We speculated that clinicians might generate very high airway pressure during manual ventilation (much higher than the pressure delivered by a mechanical ventilator), and that the high airway pressure causes alveolar recruitment and thus improves oxygenation. Such high pressure might injure alveoli in some patients. METHODS: We tested the hypothesis that manual ventilation may involve substantially higher pressure than is delivered by a mechanical ventilator. We asked experienced respiratory therapists to manually ventilate a lung model that was set to represent several typical clinical scenarios. RESULTS: We found that the peak airway pressure generated by the therapists was sometimes in excess of 100 cm H2O. CONCLUSIONS: The high airway pressure during manual ventilation would be considered extreme in the context of conventional mechanical ventilation, which raises questions about whether manual ventilation causes barotrauma.