Your vented trauma patient is profoundly hypoxemic. You start inhaled nitric oxide. Sara Crager, MD (@teachicu) from ResusX:2026: How does this selectively target well-ventilated lung units to improve oxygenation? What's your first-line agent for this? Comment below.
"Now, why does this work? Well, when you inhale something, where is most of it gonna go to the good parts of the lungs that are moving air? What is it then gonna do? Gonna dilate the pulmonary capillaries and exactly those parts of the lungs, therefore making blood go to where the oxygen is. And you're gonna use some epoprostenol or inhaled nitric oxide. Next thing, PEEP optimization. So this is really tricky in these patients, and not just because you can't use the Ardsnet PEEP letter. It wasn't really developed in those patients. We don't have a bunch of data in those patients, but also you have other issues you need to deal with in those patients that can cause PEEP to cause you problems."
💬 Discussion
Your vented trauma patient is profoundly hypoxemic. You start inhaled nitric oxide. Sara Crager, MD (@teachicu) from ResusX:2026: How does this selectively target well-ventilated lung units to improve oxygenation? What's your first-line agent for this? Comment below.
