[Artificial ventilation--where is technology going?]

Artificial ventilation plays an important role in prophylaxis and therapy of failure or malfunction of organ systems. Augmented techniques today are used as first choice methods, rather than controlled modes. Strategies for setup of ventilation parameters are necessary in order to achieve reproducible conditions. Constituent part of these strategies is an integrated monitoring which also reflects the invasiveness of the ventilator setting. Such a parameter can be derived by calculating PEEP times I/E-Ratio times FiO2 and is useful for further therapeutic decisions.