Mechanical Ventilation from Pathophysiology to Clinical Evidence

This book aims to give a comprehensive overview of the current  challenges and solution posed to the health care professionals who need  to use mechanical ventilation to treat their patients.

Mechanical  ventilation is a cornerstone of the treatment of critically ill  patients, as also dramatically underlined by the recent COVID-19  pandemic. The topic is not simple to approach, since it requires  integration of multiple data which, in turn, result from complex  interplays between patient’s condition and ventilatory settings. While  technological development empowered advanced monitoring and decision  support, these also increase the burden of data on the practitioners. 

Furthermore,  considering that sometimes mechanical ventilation is seen under two,  apparently opposite, approaches, “physiology vs. protocols”, the book  aims to reconcile these two aspects. And this has been done by each  author following the above trajectory in their chapters. 

The  exposure of the topic begins from the “pathophysiology” (i.e. the  “physiology of the disease”) so that the reader can better understand  the concept and rationale of any given approach. At the same time, any  rationale or hypothesis (for as much as supported by physiology) must  hold at the proof of clinical research and evidence, which is summarized  in each chapter.

In summary, the purposes is that the readers  understand not only which is the best clinical practice to adopt but  also why and which mechanisms this is based upon and how to approach a  novel issue they might encounter. The book – addressed to physicians,  nurses and respiratory therapist – features chapters on “novel” or “hot”  topics like, obviously, COVID-19, ECMO, but also MV in low resource  setting.