The respiratory therapist sees the following scalars on the screen of a ventilator providing support to a patient in the ICU.What action should the respiratory therapist take?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The breaths shown are both patient-triggered.Negative deflections on the pressure-time scalar are present for both complete breaths shown.There is also a negative deflection between the two that did not result in a ventilator breath.A closer look at the amount of pressure required to trigger a ventilator breath shows that it is set at 10 cm H₂O.The negative deflection in the center of the pressure-time scalar demonstrates that the patient could not generate enough negative pressure to trigger a breath.Therefore,the sensitivity needs to be reduced to 2 cm H₂O.

The Respiratory Therapist Sees the Following Scalars on the Screen