BACKGROUND Tracheostomy decreases airway resistance and work of breathing. No comprehensive data are available on respiratory mechanics after tracheostomy decannulation. We evaluated respiratory mechanics after decannulation. METHODS Twenty-five patients with tracheostomy were included. Measurement of arterial blood gases, air-flow, and esophageal pressure during spontaneous breathing were ev...

Kapitan KS. Teaching pulmonary gas exchange physiology using computer modeling. Adv Physiol Educ 32: 61–64, 2008; doi:10.1152/ advan.00099.2007.—Students often have difficulty understanding the relationship of O2 consumption, CO2 production, cardiac output, and distribution of ventilation-perfusion ratios in the lung to the final arterial blood gas composition. To overcome this difficulty, I ha...

try in detecting clinically unapparent episodes of arterial desaturation in postoperative cardiac surgical patients and to evaluate the effect ofpulse oximetry on ordering arterial blood gas analyses. Design: Prospective, randomized, partially blinded enm parison. Setting: Cardiothoracic surgical intensive care unit. Patients: 35 patients following elective cardiac surgical procedures. interven...

Observations on mature fetal lambs delivered under chloralose anesthesia showed that variations in arterial blood gas tensions, caused by ventilation with gas mixtures of differing composition, produced considerable changes in regional systemic blood flows measured with a cannulated electromagnetic flowmeter. Partial asphyxia was associated with a rise in arterial pressure and a reduction in fe...

BACKGROUND A number of studies have demonstrated a faster rate of increase in end-expired partial pressure as a fraction of inspired (Pa/Pi) for volatile agents in the presence of high concentrations of nitrous oxide, consistent with the second gas effect. However, no study has demonstrated a similar effect on arterial blood concentrations. METHODS The authors compared arterial and end-tidal ...

Satisfactory care of the sick premature newborn baby requires investigations of blood gas tensions (Dahlenburg et al., 1968) and of various biochemical parameters, such as blood sugar, often at frequent intervals during the first few hours of life. Blood samples for biochemistry can be obtained from heel pricks or by venepuncture. Heel pricks are painful, may become infected, and the number whi...