Is high-frequency ventilation more beneficial than low-tidal volume conventional ventilation?
Ten IS; Anderson MR Division of Pediatric Pharmacology and Critical Care, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Case School of Medicine, 11100 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. The ventilator goals of the ICU clinician faced with caring for a critically ill child who has ALI/ARDS remain relatively simple: provide adequate ventilation and oxygenation without overdistending alveoli or furthering lung injury. How one obtains these goals is much less simple. The current use of CV calls for the use of relatively low V(T)s and limiting peak inspiratory pressure and plateau pressure while accepting a certain degree of respiratory acidosis. The ICU team can also often achieve these same goals with HFOV. How, then, does one use evidenced-based medicine to pick the best mode of mechanical ventilation for a particular patient? The answer is controversial, to say the least. Does one start with a gentle, open-lung mode of CV then switch to HFOV if the child deteriorates? Or does one use HFO
