title: Prone position improves gas exchange--but how?
abstract: * Mechanically ventilated patients with severe acute lung insufficiencies dramatically improve their gas exchange when treated in the prone position. * ventilation heterogeneity is greater in the supine then in the prone position during CMV. * the dominant dorsal Q while supine is not turned into a dominant ventral Q in the prone position. * in the presence of an abdominal distension, the prone position more clearly improves gas exchange than at normal abdominal pressures. * CPAP enhances the dominant dorsal lung perfusion while supine. In the prone position lung perfusion is more uniform. * V/Q matching is improved in the prone position during CMV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Karolinska Hospital and Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Margareta.Mure@kirurgi.ki.se
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mure
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Lindahl
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D006801:Humans; D016684:Prone Position / Q000502:physiology*; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange / Q000502:physiology*; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology