This is the podcast Surgery I See Rounds. This is Jeff Guy.

We're going to do a series of talks on mechanical ventilation with the intent on introducing the resident or the nurse to some of the basic concepts of mechanical ventilation.

This particular talk is going to be on the different types of modes and mechanical

ventilations, the different types of ventilation that we have.

And then we'll give a talk on things like pressure support, peep, and then some of the

more exotic modes of ventilation that we use, things like VDR, oscillatory ventilation, and

APRV.

There are three really different types of ventilators.

And ventilators have typically been classified according to the cycling method.

What does that mean?

Cycling means how a ventilator switches from, say, inhalation to exhalation.

Modern ventilators over the last, say, 10 to 12 years,

have incorporated more and more microprocessors and computers,

which give ventilators a significant amount of flexibility,

and therefore we have ventilators that are able to ventilate neonates to adults.

The three types of ventilators really are volume,

cycled, pressure cycled, and time-cycled.

What does each one of those means?

Volume-cycled means that the ventilator delivers gas

until a set total volume has been delivered.

And that may be regardless of what the volume would be. In a person who has a very compliant lung with a set total volume is, say, 700 cc's, the peak

instatory pressure may be 15.

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