BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The II Brazilian Consensus Conference on Mechanical Ventilation was published in 2000. Knowledge on the field of mechanical ventilation evolved rapidly since then, with the publication of numerous clinical studies with potential impact on the ventilatory management of critically ill patients. Moreover, the evolving concept of evidence - based Medicine determined the grading of clinical recommendations according to the methodological value of the studies on which they are based. This explicit approach has broadened the understanding and adoption of clinical recommendations. For these reasons, AMIB - Associação de Medicina Intensiva Brasileira and SBPT - Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e Tisiologia - decided to update the recommendations of the II Brazilian Consensus. Intraoperative mechanical ventilation has been one of the updated topics. This objective was described the most important topics on the intraoperative mechanical ventilation.

METHODS

Systematic review of the published literature and gradation of the studies in levels of evidence, using the key words: mechanical ventilation, intraoperative and anesthesia.

RESULTS

Recommendations on how to prevent pulmonary complications during anesthesia/postoperative period and which are the best intraoperative ventilatory techniques.

CONCLUSIONS

Pulmonary atelectasis is a common complication observed in the postoperative period, thus ventilatory techniques has been adapted to prevent these complications.