What is mechanical ventilation?
Mechanical ventilation is a form of artificial respiration that uses a breathing machine (mechanical ventilator) to assist patients with breathing. It is used when the lungs are not functioning properly. How does the breathing machine (mechanical ventilator) work? A breathing machine (mechanical ventilator) pushes air into the lungs. It includes controls to adjust the rate and size of each breath, a humidifier to warm and moisten the air going into the lungs, special tubing for the air to pass through, and a trap to collect unused moisture from the tubing. The breathing machine insures that adequate oxygen gets into the blood stream and carbon dioxide is exhaled. Tubing, called breathing maching tubing or ventilator tubing, runs from the breathing machine to the breathing tube (endotracheal tube), which is inserted through the patient’s mouth or nose. Sometimes the breathing machine tubing is connected to a tracheostomy tube. The breathing machine tubing, which is the larger “corrugate
Mechanical ventilation or ventilatory support means to be on a machine that helps you breathe. The patient has a tube inserted through the nose or mouth into the trachea (windpipe) which is attached to the ventilator. The ventilator is a machine that can deliver a breath to a patient who may be having difficulty breathing or who may not be breathing at all. The number of breaths and the amount of volume or pressure given at each breath are set on the machine by the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) team.
