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Concept
Mechanical ventilation
Summary
Mechanical ventilation, assisted ventilation or intermittent mandatory ventilation (IMV) is the medical term for using a machine called a ventilator to fully or partially provide artificial ventilation. Mechanical ventilation helps move air into and out of the lungs, with the main goal of helping the delivery of oxygen and removal of carbon dioxide. Mechanical ventilation is used for many reasons, including to protect the airway due to mechanical or neurologic cause, to ensure adequate oxygenation, or to remove excess carbon dioxide from the lungs. Various healthcare providers are involved with the use of mechanical ventilation and people who require ventilators are typically monitored in an intensive care unit.
Mechanical ventilation is termed invasive if it involves an instrument to create an airway that is placed inside the trachea. This is done through an endotracheal tube or nasotracheal tube.
For non-invasive ventilation in people who are conscious, face or nasal masks are used.
The two main types of mechanical ventilation include positive pressure ventilation where air is pushed into the lungs through the airways, and negative pressure ventilation where air is pulled into the lungs. There are many specific modes of mechanical ventilation, and their nomenclature has been revised over the decades as the technology has continually developed.
The Greek physician Galen may have been the first to describe mechanical ventilation: "If you take a dead animal and blow air through its larynx [through a reed], you will fill its bronchi and watch its lungs attain the greatest distention." In the 1600s, Robert Hooke conducted experiments on dogs to demonstrate this concept. Vesalius too describes ventilation by inserting a reed or cane into the trachea of animals. These experiments predate the discovery of oxygen and its role in respiration. In 1908, George Poe demonstrated his mechanical respirator by asphyxiating dogs and seemingly bringing them back to life. These experiments all demonstrate positive pressure ventilation.
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