Title: Preoxygenation in the Critically Ill<br/>Author: Mike Winters<br/><a href='http://umem.org/profiles/faculty/141/'>[Click to email author]</a><hr/><p>
<u><strong>Preoxygenation in Critically Ill Patients</strong></u></p>
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Achieving adequate preoxygenation and denitrogenation prior to intubating critically ill patients can be challenging.</li>
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Critically ill patients have physiologic alterations (i.e., derangements in oxygen consumption, anemia, reduced cardiac output, air space disease) that can markedly reduce safe apnea time.</li>
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For patients with significant air space disease and shunt physiology, noninvasive ventilation (NIV) can decrease shunt fraction, increase functional residual capacity, improve PaO2, and lengthen safe apnea time.</li>
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Importantly, NIV should be used for at <u>least 3 minutes</u> to achieve improvements in alveolar recruitment.</li>
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It is also important to remove NIV just prior to larygnoscopy, as alveoli will begin to derecruit when NIV is removed.</li>
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<fieldset><legend>References</legend>
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Mosier JM, Hypes CD, Sackles JC. Understanding preoxygenation and apneic oxygenation during intubation in the critically ill. <em>Intensive Care Med</em>. 2017; 43:226-8.</p>
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