Bi-level ventilation mode (aka as “bivent”) has been used increasingly in intensive care units over the last decade. It is a relatively straightforward ventilation modality that allows the patient to breathe spontaneously at any time during the respiratory cycle, especially if the practitioner remembers a few of the basic tenets of its use:
Possible Indications
ARDS
Lung recruitment
Pulmonary contusion
Patients requiring inverse I:E ratio that are not paralyzed
Combination Mode guidelines that provide machine breaths and spontaneous breaths
Select two pressure levels – P high and PEEP
Select two pressure supports – PS above P high and PEEP
Select two time cycles – T high and T PEEP
