High-frequency ventilation: a promising new approach to mechanical ventilation.

Adequate pulmonary ventilation can be achieved in experimental animals and in humans using tidal volumes on the order of the anatomic dead space volume applied at very high ventilatory frequencies (3-30 Hz). Classical mechanism of gas exchange cannot account for these paradoxical observations, but theories based on the concept of augmented diffusion may provide an adequate explanation for this phenomenon. Even though the exact mechanisms accounting for gas exchange are not well understood, a number of successful ventilators have been designed and tested based on the concept of small volume/high frequency ventilation. The differences among these various ventilators are compared and contrasted and possible clinical uses of the technique are discussed.