Effectiveness of Low Volume and Low Pressure in Severe Hypoxemic Patients

The present study set up to answer two questions: (a) "how low tidal volume must be to provide protective ventilatory settings able to minimize the risk of death due to Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury (VILI)?"; (b) "if protection from VILI is better achieved by targeting the driving pressure instead of the tidal volume, what is the optimal target for the driving pressure?". Solving these questions is pivotal for clinicians to personalized and precise mechanical ventilation practices to reduce the risk of VILI and avoid unnecessary risks associated to protective ventilatory settings. Two multicenter emulated target trials will be performed using data collected with the Electronic Health Record MargheritaTre, to investigate the effect of low tidal volumes (6.0 to 8.0 ml/kg PBW vs 8.0 to 10.0 ml/kg PBW) and low driving pressures (7.0-12.0 cmH2O vs 12.0-18.0 cmH2O), respectively. Data will be used to obtain the dose-response curve of lower VT and lower ∆P in mechanically ventilated patients with acute severe hypoxemia.