Pressure control to accommodate patient breathing efforts during volume ventilation

Intermittent positive-pressure ventilation is used to support patients whose unassisted breathing is inadequate. Mechanical ventilators deliver pressurized gas to the patient's lungs by using a pattern of volume and timing that is preset by the clinician. A weakness of existing control methods is their emphasis on maintaining adequate gas exchange while poorly accommodating the patient's efforts to reassume control of the delivery pattern. A method is proposed to control airway pressure within a breath by making it respond to measurements of volume. This method using pressure as a function of volume, or P(V) method, permits the patient to have transient control over flow rate and delivered volume. In addition, an adaptive controller is included that modifies the applied pressure during subsequent breaths; it assures an average flow rate and delivered volume at the levels prescribed by the clinician, when sustained changes occur in airway resistance, lung-thorax compliance, or breathing efforts. Analyses and computer simulations suggest that the P(V) method will be better than conventional volume ventilation in accommodating, within a breath, transient breathing efforts without long-term degradation of the prescribed delivery pattern. The P(V) method can restore the delivery pattern, using the adaptive controller, within a few breaths after changes occur in the patient's lung mechanics. We conclude that the P(V) method is feasible, that it may represent an improved method of patient ventilation, particularly during fighting or weaning from the ventilator, and that it warrants further investigation.