Fig. 1
From: PEEP, p-values, and pulmonary mechanics; don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
Graph A illustrates the assumption made by Greico et al., that compliance changes in a linear fashion when PEEP is incrementally changed from 5 to 15 cmH2O. In graph B, we modeled compliance changes expected during a PEEP titration. Using compliance reported for Greico et al.’s cohort, and PEEP titration data in ARDS patients where optimal compliance occurs at a PEEP between 9 and 12 cm H2O for most patients, we have modeled potential changes in compliance for patients in each of the three groups as PEEP is titrated from 5 to 15 cm H2O. The blue line represents patients whose compliance is increased at a PEEP of 15 cmH2O, the orange represents patients whose compliance is unchanged, and the gray line represents patients whose compliance is reduced at the higher PEEP level