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Minerva Anestesiologica 2003 November;69(11):841-51

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

High frequency percussive ventilation (HFPV). Principles and technique

Lucangelo U., Fontanesi L., Antonaglia V., Pellis T., Berlot G., Liguori G. ², Bird F. M. ³, Gullo A. ¹

¹ Unit of Anesthesia and Resuscitation Department of Perioperative Medicine Intensive Therapy and Emergency University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy 2 Operative Clinical Unit Department of General Surgery and Surgical Therapy University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy 3 Bird Institute of Biomedical Technology Sandpoint, ID, USA

In recent years, the usefulness of high frequency ventilation (HFV) has been clinically reassessed as an alternative to conventional mecha-nical ventilation (CMV). HFV has often been combined with or in some cases even completely replaced CMV in the attempt to reduce iatrogenic injury. High frequency percussive ventilation (HFPV) is a specific mode of HFV that has been successfully applied in the treatment of acute respiratory failure after smoke inhalation; it has also been more widely used in pediatric than in adult patients. This article gives an introduction to and a description of the basic principles of HFPV, a mode of ventilation which we found particularly versatile and reliable in our preliminary clinical experience with the maneuver.