Positive pressure ventilation

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Positive pressure ventilators help patients with respiratory problems to breathe easier. They use high pressure gas at the opening of the patients lungs in order to mobilize oxygen flow down the pressure gradient, and into the patient's lungs.

Spontaneous breathing usually happens because a negative pressure is created inside the lungs and air enters quickly to fill this lower pressure. With PPV the ventilator generates a positive pressure outside the patient. A breathing tube is inserted to achieve this.

The positive pressure ventilation is a method that consists in creating an air flow ("wind") by raising the pressure in a part of a device or building.

It is used to assist the respiration when it is inefficient

see Mechanical ventilation.

It is also used in fire fighting to push the smoke away. See Ventilation (firefighting)

[edit] See also

• Positive airway pressure
• Positive end-expiratory pressure

v • d • e Respiratory system, physiology: respiratory physiology

Volumes: lung volumes - vital capacity - functional residual capacity - respiratory minute volume - dead space - spirometry - body plethysmography - peak flow meter ventilation (V) (positive pressure) breath (inhalation, exhalation) - respiratory rate - respirometer - pulmonary surfactant - compliance - hysteresivity - airway resistance pulmonary circulation - perfusion (Q) - hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction - pulmonary shunt ventilation/perfusion ratio (V/Q) and scan - zones of the lung - gas exchange - pulmonary gas pressures - alveolar gas equation - hemoglobin - oxygen-haemoglobin dissociation curve (2,3-DPG, Bohr effect, Haldane effect) - carbonic anhydrase (chloride shift) - oxyhemoglobin - respiratory quotient - arterial blood gas - diffusion capacity - Dlco control of respiration: pons (pneumotaxic center, apneustic center) - medulla (dorsal respiratory group, ventral respiratory group) - chemoreceptors (central, peripheral) - pulmonary stretch receptors - Hering-Breuer reflex high altitude - oxygen toxicity - hypoxia