Introduction Proportional Assist Ventilation (PAV), Adaptive Support Ventilation (ASV) and SmartCare (SC) are new modes of ventilation that have recently become available on the market. Although these modes have numerous similarities, there are several important differences that clinicians should be aware of to ensure successful and appropriate application of each. The present paper will descri...

Introduction Proportional assist ventilation (PAV+) is a partial ventilatory support mode delivering airway pressure (Paw) in proportion to patient effort, enhancing patient-ventilator interactions. The ventilator estimates muscular pressure by using the respiratory system equation of motion with the instantaneous volume (V) and flow (V ́) and the automatically calculated compliance and resistan...

Proportional assist ventilation is a promising addition to other more conventional modes of mechanical ventilation with the theoretical advantage of improving patient-ventilator interaction. It may also be of use as a diagnostic tool in the control of breathing in mechanically ventilated patients.

BACKGROUND Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) is a pneumatically-independent mode of mechanical ventilation controlled by diaphragm electrical activity (EAdi), and has not yet been implemented in very small species. OBJECTIVES The aims of the study were to evaluate the feasibility of applying NAVA in very small species and to compare this to pressure support ventilation (PSV) in term...

In this paper, we discuss several control techniques for Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) and describe a hierarchical control structure that can be used to regulate the operation of a turbo-hydrodynamic VAD. Early assist devices were pulsatile, and control usually focused on regulating flow, atrial and/or arterial pressures. In recent years, non-pulsatile turbo-hydronamic devices have been int...

The implantation of a mechanical circulatory device for end-stage ventricular failure is a possible therapeutic approach in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery and cardiology. The aim of this article is to present mechanical circulatory assist devices used in infants and children with special emphasis on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, Berlin Heart assist device, centrifugal pump and Medos...

In the past 5 years, the numbers of ventricular assist device (VAD) systems implanted worldwide have increased exponentially. Thus, since the introduction of the HeartMate II LVAD by Thoratec (Thoratec Inc., Pleasanton, CA, USA) over 10 000 of these pumps have been implanted. The HVAD manufactured by HeartWare (HeartWare Inc., Framingham, MA, USA) has also found widespread application in Europe...