Diaphragmatic dysfunction associated with invasive mechanical ventilation in critically ill adult patients

Invasive mechanical ventilation (VMI) is a life support therapy that is not free of complications, such as ventilator induced diaphragmatic dysfunction, which is characterized by atrophy and weakness of the muscle. Interest in this pathology seems to be based on the association found with negative clinical results. The prevalence ranges between 29 and 80%, probably due to the variability between the different diagnostic methods and the time of evaluation. The gold standard continues to be the transdiaphragmatic negative pressure generated by the bilateral stimulation of the phrenic nerves, although due to the lack of practicality, diaphragmatic ultrasound began to be used. Although it has several modalities, not all of them have correlation analysis with the gold standard. Another problem arises when analyzing the independent association between pathology and VMI, since confusing factors are not easy to isolate.