The respiratory therapist sees the following scalars on the ...

[crazycityslicker]

The respiratory therapist sees the following scalars on the screen of a ventilator providing support to a patient in the ICU. What action should the respiratory therapist take?
 
  a. Switch to the volume-controlled intermit-tent mandatory ventilation (VC-IMV) mode.
  b. Increase the flow rate to 60 L/min.
  c. Decrease the sensitivity to 2 cm H2O.
  d. Increase the tidal volume to 550 mL.

Question 2

What is the inspiratory time for the ventilator breath shown in section B of the figure below?
 
  a. 0.5 second
  b. 1.0 second
  c. 1.5 second
  d. 2.0 seconds

[Galvarado142]

Answer to Question 1

ANS: C
The breaths shown are both patient-triggered. Negative deflections on the pressure-time scalar are present for both complete breaths shown. There is also a negative deflection between the two that did not result in a ventilator breath. A closer look at the amount of pressure required to trig-ger a ventilator breath shows that it is set at 10 cm H2O. The negative deflection in the center of the pressure-time scalar demonstrates that the patient could not generate enough negative pres-sure to trigger a breath. Therefore, the sensitivity needs to be reduced to 2 cm H2O.

Answer to Question 2

ANS: A
Inspiration in section B of the figure is approximately 0.5 second. This can be found by drawing a straight line through the beginning of the breath on all three of the scalars and a second line at the end of inspiration on each of the scalars as shown below:

[crazycityslicker]

Thanks for the timely response, appreciate it

[ecabral0]

Gracias!