On-line expiratory flow-volume curves during thoracic surgery: occurrence of auto-PEEP.
Flow-volume loops were monitored continuously in 39 patients undergoing thoracic surgery requiring one-lung ventilation. In 26 of the 39 patients (67%), auto-positive end-expiratory pressure (auto-PEEP) was seen on the flow-volume curves during both two-lung and one-lung ventilation. Eighty-seven percent of the patients whose trachea was intubated with a smaller size (35- and 37-French gauge) double-lumen tracheal tube exhibited auto-PEEP, compared with patients in whom the tube used was larger (39- or 41-French gauge: 54% and 50%, respectively). Before operation, mean airway resistance was significantly greater in patients who exhibited auto-PEEP during anaesthesia (2.4 cm H2O litre-1 s) than in patients without auto-PEEP (1.7 cm H2O litre-1 s).
Bardoczky
G
G
Department of Anesthesiology, Erasme University Hospital, Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
d'Hollander
A
A
Yernault
J C
JC
Van Meuylem
A
A
Moures
J M
JM
Rocmans
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000403:Airway Resistance; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology*