Fig. 1

In the right square, we present the starting conditions of this analysis. In the left upper panel, we present the decrease of the total ventilation to maintain an unchanged PCO₂ (lower right panel) when the extracorporeal blood flow is increased. In the left lower panel, we show which would be the arterial PO₂ as a function of the extracorporeal blood flow, if the shunt fraction would be unmodified. As shown, an extracorporeal blood flow of 1.5 L/min, if the shunt increases to 0.4 to 0.7 (a common finding in this condition), the PaO₂ increase, if any, is negligible