Ventilating the newborn and child

Summary The mechanical ventilation of neonates and children in operating theatres has always posed a challenge for anaesthesiologists. Firstly, the extreme physiological features of neonatal lungs make them very difficult to ventilate with an anaesthesia ventilator. Gattinoni's "baby lung" concept to describe ARDS lungs in adults comes from the physiological features of neonatal lungs (low dynamic compliance, low pulmonary time constant, low FRC, high closing volume, proneness to atelectasis, high inspiratory airway resistance). Secondly, the performance and technology (peak flow, insufflation power, trigger sensitivity, ventilation modes, etc.) of anaesthesia ventilators is still less adva…