Case Report
(High Frequency/Small Tidal Volume Differential
Lung Ventilation): A Technique of Ventilating the
Nondependent Lung of One Lung Ventilation for Robotically
Assisted Thoracic Surgery
Bassam M. Shoman, Hany O. Ragab, Ammar Mustafa, and Rashid Mazhar
Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Department, Heart Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O. Box 3050, Doha, Qatar
Correspondence should be addressed to Bassam M. Shoman; baskalito@hotmail.com
Received 20 March 2015; Revised 29 July 2015; Accepted 30 July 2015
Academic Editor: Maria Jose C. Carmona
Copyright © 2015 Bassam M. Shoman et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
With the introduction of new techniques and advances in the thoracic surgery felds, challenges to the anesthesia techniques had
became increasingly exponential. One of the great improvements that took place in the thoracic surgical feld was the use of the
robotically assisted thoracic surgical procedure and minimally invasive endoscopic thoracic surgery. One lung ventilation technique
represents the core anesthetic management for the success of those surgical procedures. Even with the use of efective one lung
ventilation, the patient hemodynamics and respiratory parameters could be deranged and could not be tolerating the procedure
that could compromise the end result of surgery. We are presenting our experience in managing one patient who sufered persistent
hypoxia and hemodynamic instability with one lung ventilation for robotically assisted thymectomy procedure and how it was
managed till the completion of the surgery successfully.
1. Introduction
Te development of lung isolation and one lung ventilation
(OLV) accelerated the evolution of thoracic surgery as a sub-
specialty. Before the introduction of endotracheal tube and
the cufed endotracheal tube, only select few intrathoracic
procedures were feasible. Rapid lung movement and quickly
developing respiratory distress made the surgical procedures
difcult and risky. Selective ventilation of one lung changed
this scenario. It was frst described in 1931 by Gale and
Water and quickly led to increasingly complex lung resection
surgery, with the frst published pneumonectomy for cancer
in 1933 [1]. Techniques and apparatus used for OLV have
changed signifcantly in recent years. Tese changes have
come largely in response to an increased use of OLV during
lung surgery and the advent of newer, minimally invasive
surgical procedures, whereas OLV in the operating room or
intensive care unit was once viewed as a complex endeavor
largely managed by experts in academic institutions. Te
introduction of newer limited access thoracic and cardiac
procedures has made it necessary as anesthesia staf members
to master lung isolation techniques. Modifcation of OLV
technique is sometimes needed during the procedure to face
the potential problems that could change the plans and covert
the procedure to conventional lung ventilation. Te well-
known methods of increasing FIO
2
, applying PEEP to the
ventilated lung, use of CPAP to the nonventilated lung, or
intermittent reinfation of the collapsed lung may not work
to improve hypoxia and hypercarbia associated with OLV.
In this case report we are presenting a modifcation of the
diferential lung ventilation technique for managing hypoxia
and hypercarbia during robotic assisted thymectomy using
OLV [2].
2. Case Report
A 35-year-old female Asian patient who is known to be
nonsmoker and nonalcoholic referred by the infection con-
trol department to the cardiothoracic surgery team afer
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Anesthesiology
Volume 2015, Article ID 631450, 3 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/631450