RT Book, Section A1 Farcy, David A. A1 Shah, Nirav G. A1 Petersen, Paul L. A1 DeBlieux, Peter M.C. A2 Farcy, David A. A2 Chiu, William C. A2 Marshall, John P. A2 Osborn, Tiffany M. SR Print(0) ID 1135699696 T1 Mechanical Ventilation T2 Critical Care Emergency Medicine, 2e YR 2016 FD 2016 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071838764 LK accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1135699696 RD 2021/05/17 AB Mechanical ventilation (MV) is an essential tool for critically ill patients. While emergency physicians are well known for their expertise in emergent airway management, securing the airway is only a fraction of their role. Ventilator management is a crucial facet of emergency medicine, because if it is not applied correctly, it can worsen the clinical course and increase morbidity and mortality.1 In the past two decades, our understanding of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) has resulted in lowering tidal volumes, minimizing barotrauma, and safely using positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) to reduce atelectrauma. In addition, we have realized the importance of mitigating patient-ventilator dyssynchrony in order to eliminate biotrauma. Given the current crisis of intensive care unit (ICU) overcrowding and increased critical care volume, critically ill patients have increased lengths of stay in the emergency department (ED) and, at times, are boarded for several hours or even days until a bed is available in the ICU.2,3 The emergency physician must understand the intricacies of MV for heterogeneous patient populations with dynamic pathologies: No “single setting fits all.” Both patient care and outcomes will improve with special consideration of each patient's needs.