A patient is receiving volume-controlled ventilation.The respiratory therapist notes the pressure-time scalar on the ventilator screen,shown in the figure.The most appropriate action to take includes which of the following?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

What is being shown in the figure is a trigger pressure of 5 cm H₂O below the baseline setting of 5 cm H₂O.This is seen during the pressure trigger dropping down to 0 cm H₂O during the trigger.In this situation the machine is not sensitive enough to the patient's effort.The patient is working too hard to trigger the ventilator breath.The respiratory therapist needs to increase the ventilator sensitivity control.Changing any of the other parameters will not decrease the work that the patient is doing to trigger inspiration.

A Patient Is Receiving Volume-Controlled Ventilation