Optimizing ventilation in established BPD
Babies with established BPD (I won't worry about the exact diagnostic criteria here, but very preterm infants who are still ventilated as they approach term are the group I am talking about) have somewhat reduced compliance, increased airways resistance,…
Babies with established BPD (I won't worry about the exact diagnostic criteria here, but very preterm infants who are still ventilated as they approach term are the group I am talking about) have somewhat reduced compliance, increased airways resistance, leading to long time constants, and rather heterogeneous lungs, often with apical emphysema and basal atelectasis. Ventilatory requirements are different to infants with, for example, HMD, who have predominately atelectatic lung disease, very low compliance, and airways resistance which is largely normal, apart from the resistance due to the endotracheal tube; such infants have very short time constants, so can be ventilated with very short expiratory times, and respond to increased PEEP with improving oxygenation.
