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Mechanical ventilation, explained
Short, practical explanations of the things that actually come up at the bedside, from the author of The Ventilator Book. Free to read, no account needed.
Auto-PEEP: how to find it and what to do about it
Auto-PEEP is air the patient never got to exhale. How to spot it on the flow waveform, measure it with an expiratory pause, and unload it safely.
Driving pressure: the ventilator number that tracks mortality
Driving pressure is plateau pressure minus PEEP. Why it predicts harm better than tidal volume alone, how to measure it, and how to bring it down.
Reading ventilator waveforms
Pressure, flow and volume against time: what each trace tells you, the equation behind all three, and the patterns worth knowing on sight.
Pressure control vs volume control
What each mode fixes and what it lets vary, how the same lung problem looks different in each, and why the choice matters less than it seems.
How to read an arterial blood gas
A five-step method for interpreting any ABG: pH, the primary disorder, whether compensation fits, the anion gap, and the delta ratio.
Capnography: reading end-tidal CO2
What the capnogram shows, why end-tidal CO2 is always at or below PaCO2, the waveform shapes worth recognizing, and what a sudden loss means.
Setting tidal volume from predicted body weight
Lung size tracks height, not weight. How to calculate predicted body weight, why actual weight is the wrong input, and what 4 to 8 mL/kg means in practice.
Setting PEEP in ARDS
How to choose PEEP: the ARDSNet tables, what PEEP is actually doing to a heterogeneous lung, and the patients in whom more of it is the wrong answer.
Patient-ventilator dyssynchrony: the patterns
The common forms of dyssynchrony, how each looks on the pressure and flow traces, what causes them, and why sedation is usually the wrong first move.
Weaning: the spontaneous breathing trial and the RSBI
When a patient is ready for a breathing trial, how to run one, what the rapid shallow breathing index tells you, and the signs that should stop a trial early.
Ventilator glossary
Plain definitions of the terms that come up on a ventilated patient, from PEEP and plateau pressure to dead space, shunt and the RSBI.
Reading is not practicing.
These pages explain the ventilator. The Workbook is where you go and use one: nineteen modules, a knowledge check, and a live simulator with a patient behind it who cannot be harmed. Start free, no card.