[Independent pulmonary ventilation as a treatment in the re-expansion of atelectasis].

Two patients with respiratory failure were treated with independent lung ventilation (ILV). During their clinical course they developed atelectasis without response to usual therapies. The use of ILV and selective positive end-expiratory pressure (S-PEEP) allowed lung expansion and oxymetric improvement. With the ILV plus S-PEEP we tried to correct the abnormal ventilation/perfusion ratio. ILV plus S-PEEP increases both the ventilation in the highly perfused areas, and the functional residual capacity selectively in the pathologic lung in unilateral affection cases.