Clinical Application of Mechanical Ventilation, Fourth Edition – David W. Chang

Clinical Application of Mechanical Ventilation

Mechanical ventilation has been an integral part of critical care medicine. In its earlier years, ventilators were mainly used in the intensive care units and occasionally in the emergency departments for patient stabilization and intrahospital transport.
In recent years, ventilators are used frequently in interhospital and intercontinental transport of critically ill patients. They are also used in mass casualty events, in both hyperbaric and hypobaric environments. Technology has evolved to a point where patients can manage the basic functions of their ventilators at home and even on a commercial aircraft.
Due to the inherited limitations of printed media, it would be impossible to provide adequate coverage on all topics, theories, procedures, and equipment related to mechanical ventilation. As a tradeoff, the primary focus of this mechanical ventilation textbook is to provide a basic but thorough presentation of those relevant topics that are pertinent to everyday clinical practice. Users of information technology and the Internet would agree that “more is not better.” This book attempts to strike a balance between an adequate coverage in theory and a spectrum of needed clinical knowledge. The learners should find this book useful to develop a solid foundation in the theories of mechanical ventilation. With additional clinical experience, the learners should be able to integrate and apply the theories of mechanical ventilation in a clinical setting for better patient care.
In the fourth edition of Clinical Application of Mechanical Ventilation, new information and numerous references have been added. In some cases, older references are retained because their unique contribution has not been duplicated or cannot be found elsewhere. These classic references also allow learners and researchers to follow the path of progression in the knowledge and techniques of mechanical ventilation.