Electrical impedance tomography was able to identify and quantify on a breath-by-breath basis circumscribed areas, so-called silent spaces, within healthy lungs that received little or no ventilation during general anaesthesia, capnoperitoneum, and different body positions. As these silent spaces are suggestive of atelectasis on the one hand and overdistension on the other, they might become useful to guide individualized protective ventilation strategies to mitigate the side-effects of anaesthesia and surgery on the lungs.

Baseline n=47 n=11 n=12 n=12 n=12 23.

Goal-directed hemodynamic management guided by stroke volume variation led to improved survival, tissue oxygenation, and microcirculatory perfusion, as well as less histopathologic damage in an animal model of severe acute pancreatitis.