Increased blood pressure during inverse ratio ventilation in two patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome.

Abstract

Inverse ratio ventilation (IRV) is increasingly used in the supportive treatment of patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure. A recent study suggests that IRV reduces cardiac output with minimal effect on mean arterial pressure. We report two cases in which IRV led to reproducible increases in mean arterial pressure. Concomitant hemodynamic measurements suggest that these responses occurred as a result of increased vascular resistance.