La variabilité du comportement ventilatoire : perspectives pour le malade de réanimation

Ventilation is a continuous periodic activity with successive inspiratory and expiratory phases. Such activity is not monotonous and the breath-to-breath variability is not likely to be purely random. Breath to breath variability of breathing components may be a way to assess the complexity of the respiratory central pattern generator. Preliminary studies found that breath-to-breath variability could be valuable in certain clinical conditions and a reduction of the variability has been reported in mechanically ventilated patients who failed to be extubated. Finally, preliminary reports suggest the possibility to improve oxygenation in hypoxemic patients by using variable ventilatory support.