Ventilation of the Extremely Premature Infants Optimized by Dead Space Washout

The Continuous Tracheal Gas Insufflation (CTGI) is a ventilation option of conventional ventilation to reduce or even cancel dead space due to respiratory prostheses. This objective is particularly interesting in the smallest preterm infants in which the volume of anatomical dead space due to prostheses is little different from the tidal volume. The principle of this option is to continuously blow an additional flow of 0.2 L/min at tip of endotracheal tube to purge expired CO2 trapped in the prostheses to have a CO2-free volume of gas available for subsequent insufflation.