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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

New recommended tidal volumes

When I started out as an RT in 1995 the recommended tidal volume was 10-15cc/kg ideal body weight. It was common to set up a patient on 800-1000cc of tidal volume. Personally I always thought this was pretty high, yet those were the settings we were given by doctors based on wisdom of that day.

Yet in lieu of evidence that shows that higher tidal volumes increase the incidence of ARDS, the new recommendations are for lower tidal volumes. This is why our Ventilator Set-up protocol now calls for a tidal volume of 6-10 cc/kg ideal body weight.

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