Mechanical Ventilation in the Asthmatic Status

Abstract

The bronchial asthma is an important health problem in our country and it causes great number of hospitalary admissions yearly and a high index of admissions in intensive care units. The severe bronchial asthma is characterized by reversible obstruction of the airways of less caliber which provoke the lowering of the expiratory flow and produce air entrapment ar dynamic hyperimflation which generates very high pressures in the airways and intrathoracic duct increasing the risk of barotrauma and volutrauma caused during the ventilatory support. This conditions of high pressure and expiratory airways obstruction individualize the strategy used during the ventilatory support and justify the therapeutic actions that propitiate an increase in the expiratory time and lowering the airway pressure. The interpretation of the graphic monitoring is important in the establishment of ventilation during the severe crisis of bronchial asthma which facilitates the patient´s oxygenation, and the evaluation of the different therapeutic modes used. In the paper it is shown through the interpretation of the graphic monitoring how to start and evaluate the ventilation of the asthmatic patient minimizing the damage caused by the increase of the intrathoracic pressures.