Mechanical Ventilation in Anesthesia and Critical Care Small Animal Patients

Mechanical ventilation is a pivotal therapeutic strategy in the anesthesia and critical care small animal patient which has the main purpose of maintaining adequate pulmonary oxygenation and ventilation. With the increasing complexity of surgical and diagnostic procedures, as well as the increasing clinical capability to manage the critically ill patient, the worldwide use of mechanical ventilation in small animal patients has substantially increased. Even though mechanical ventilation is a life-supporting strategy used to maintain pulmonary gas exchange, it can be associated with clinically significant adverse effects, particularly in relation to cardiovascular and respiratory function. The pillars of the clinical use of mechanical ventilation are the optimization of pulmonary gas exchange alongside the minimization of its adverse effects. The accomplishment of these two pillars in the small animal clinical settings requires modern and accurate ventilatory as well as monitoring techniques to be employed.

One of most important recent advances in the therapeutic use of mechanical ventilation in the human critical care and anesthesia clinical settings was the understanding that the ventilatory strategy applied to the patient can significantly affect clinical outcome. Despite advances in the last decade, and the frequent use of mechanical ventilation in small animal patients, several aspects of its clinical use in the anesthesia and critical care settings still need to be clarified and discussed more extensively and broadly to improve the current standard of care. In this Research Topic, we aim to present the latest research, as well as to discuss the contradictions in this field with the ultimate goal of raising the attention of small animal clinicians in regards to how to improve the clinical use of mechanical ventilation.

Original Research, Systematic Reviews, Reviews, Case Reports and Clinical Trials on, but not limited to, the following themes are encouraged:
• Ventilatory settings guidelines: tidal volume, peak pressure, plateau pressure, PEEP, respiratory rate, driving pressure
• Lung-Protective ventilation strategies: a reality for veterinary patients?
• Tidal volume: less is more?
• Which is the best FiO2 during anesthesia?
• Ventilation modes
• Monitoring respiratory function during mechanical ventilation
• Monitoring neuromuscular blockade: necessity or myth?
• Recruitment maneuvers – concepts and techniques
• Noninvasive ventilation