Tidal volume, lung hyperinflation and arterial oxygenation during general anaesthesia

Impaired pulmonary oxygen (O2) exchange is common during general anaesthesia but there is no clinical unanimity as to methods of prevention or treatment. We studied 14 patients at risk for pulmonary dysfunction because of increased age, obesity, cigarette smoking, or chronic lung disease. Pulmonary O2 exchange was measured during four conditions of ventilation: awake spontaneous, conventional tidal volume (CVT, 7 ml.kg-1) or high tidal volume (HVT, 12 ml.kg-1) controlled ventilation, and five min after manual hyperinflation (HI) of the lungs. The FIO2 was controlled at 0.5, and FETCO2 was kept constant by adding dead space during HVT. Eight patients were ventilated with N2O/O2 and six with air/O2. Arterial blood gases were used to calculate the (A-a)DO2. In seven patients (A-a)DO2 worsened after induction of anaesthesia, while in seven there was no change or an improvement. Manual HI significantly reduced (A-a)DO2, but changing tidal volume (VT) had no effect. Using a multivariate model to predict O2 exchange, obesity and type of surgery were significantly associated with worsening, while level of VT and inspiratory gas (N2O or N2) were not significant predictors. Thus patient and surgical factors were more important determinants of pulmonary gas exchange during anaesthesia than were tidal volume or inspiratory gas. Manual HI is a simple and effective manoeuvre to improve gas exchange.