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The importance of the expiratory pause
Author(s) -
COOK L. B.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
anaesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.839
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2044
pISSN - 0003-2409
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2044.1996.tb07791.x
Subject(s) - medicine , breathing , anesthesia , respiratory system
Summary A physical lung model simulating spontaneous respiration was used to investigate the influence of the respiratory pattern on the efficiency of the Mapleson A, C and D breathing systems. It is shown that the Mapleson A system is always the most efficient breathing system and that its performance is relatively independent of the respiratory pattern. When the expiratory pause is minimal, the Mapleson C system is almost as efficient as the Mapleson A, but becomes ever less efficient as the expiratory pause increases. The Mapleson D system is very inefficient when the expiratory pause is short. With a longer expiratory pause, this system's efficiency approaches that of the Mapleson A. The experimental results are compared with predictions generated by a mathematical model. There is good agreement between the two, validating the mathematics used.