ASSISTED VENTILATION IN THE POST-BYPASS PERIOD BY

A regime for the postoperative ventilatory management of patients who have undergone operations under cardiopulmonary bypass is described and the problems discussed. It is recommended that the endotracheal tube be left in position for 24 hours, if this can be done without the use of unduly large amounts of analgesics, and mechanical venti-latory assistance is given by a patient-triggered ventilator. If further ventilatory assist-ance is required, the ventilator can be used with a facepiece. Should the patient's condition deteriorate, early tracheostomy is carried out. Continuous assisted venti-lation through the tracheostomy tube will maintain the patient's condition and reduce the number of cases requiring full control of ventilation. This paper describes a method of management of pulmonary ventilation in patients who have had an operation under cardiopulmonary bypass. A proportion of such patients requires ventilatory assistance because of pulmonary complications, cardiac complications, increased metabolic de