Ventilation and Oxygen Requirements during Prolonged Artificial Ventilation in Patients with Respiratory Failure

IN a person with normal lungs the amount of ventilation that is sufficient to eliminate the carbon dioxide produced (and thus to maintain carbon dioxide homeostasis) is predictable with considerable accuracy, as shown by Radford and his associates.1 , 2 Such ventilation standards are based on the sex, weight and respiratory rate of the subject as well as predictable changes in basal metabolic rate caused by elevation in body temperature and moderate physical activity. Their accuracy when applied to the normal, anesthetized patient has been confirmed by others.3 , 4 In recent years the indications for use of artificial ventilation have broadened, and the . . .