You are monitoring a stable patient that is receiving mechanical ventilation. His ABG results are as follows:
belongs to book: ABG PRACTICE QUESTIONS|Respiratory Therapy Zone|| Chapter number:1| Question number:34
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total answers (1)
belongs to book: ABG PRACTICE QUESTIONS|Respiratory Therapy Zone|| Chapter number:1| Question number:34
total answers (1)
Medicine
To get this one right, you have to be able to interpret the ABG results and make the appropriate changes to the ventilator settings. These are the types of questions you will see on the TMC Exam. So let’s break this one down.
The pH is increased which means alkalosis. The PaCO2 is decreased. The HCO3, BE, PaO2, and SaO2 are all within the normal range. This means that the patient has acute respiratory alkalosis. In other words, the patient is hyperventilating.
When a patient is hyperventilating, or breathing too fast, you need to decrease the minute ventilation. You can do that by either decreasing the rate or decreasing the tidal volume.
By looking at the answer choices, only one of the two is listed, so we know that the correct answer has to be C.
The correct answer is: C. Decrease the tidal volume
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