The Ventilator Book PDF Free Download

The third edition of The Ventilator Book combines the content of the original book with key chapters from The Advanced Ventilator Book into one comprehensive reference. The Ventilator Book has been the go-to reference for physicians, advanced practice providers, respiratory therapists, fellows, residents, and students working in the Intensive Care Unit since 2012. It has been published in four languages, with over 50,000 copies in print. Dr. William Owens explains, in clear language, the basics of respiratory failure and mechanical ventilation. This is a guide to keep in your jacket pocket, call room, or in the ICU. Chapters have been updated to reflect new developments in critical care medicine and the experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book is divided into sections on physiology and technology; conventional modes and basic concepts; and unconventional modes and advanced concepts. As always, there are chapters for initial ventilator setup, adjustments, and troubleshooting. Patient-ventilator dyssynchrony, rescue therapies for ARDS, and ECMO are also covered.The goal of The Ventilator Book is to demystify mechanical ventilation for the nonexpert practitioner and to emphasize safe, patient-based critical care. This edition lives up to the intent of the best-selling original, which is to make difficult concepts easy to understand.

User’s Review:

Editorial Reviews: About the Author William Owens, MD, is the Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Palmetto Health Richland, a tertiary referral center in Columbia, SC. He is also the Division Chief for Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine in the Palmetto Health-USC Medical Group and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine with the University of South Carolina. He has also served on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Owens is a graduate of The Citadel and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. He trained in Emergency Medicine at the Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge, LA. He did his fellowship training in Critical Care Medicine at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. He is board-certified in Emergency Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Neurocritical Care Medicine. He has spoken at regional and national conferences and has published articles in the peer-reviewed medical literature. Throughout his career, Dr. Owens has been an active clinician and educator. He enjoys training physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists in the care of the most seriously ill and injured patients and is a firm believer in a holistic approach to critical care medicine. He believes in the rational application of physiology and in always questioning our assumptions. Dr. Owens lives in Columbia, SC, with his wife and three free-range children. He also lives with a St. Bernard and a beehive with about 60,000 bees. He enjoys mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, playing lacrosse, and going on family adventures. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

I am an ICU RN. Probably many of those things explained in this book I was supposed to know, but I didn’t. Talks between an RT and a physician were a mystery to me many times. Now I understand their reasoning behind decisions. I gained lots of confidence by reading the book that was very easy to read. It is also written quite artistically, and with a lot of sense of humor! Absolutely priceless book!

A freind going into Crit Care recommended this after I said I’d have to manage an open ICU next yr as a hospitalist. My program only lets fellows and attendings touch the vents and doesn’t do all that much vent teaching.I read this over three times in 2 weeks (short read) and can now explain vents to my co-residents. While you obviously still need the hands on, this book will give you all the tools you need to manage the vast majority of vent cases. It’s explained as simply as I can imagine, and really takes the mystery out of vents making you think “ Eh, vents aren’t that difficult.” Highly recommended for anyone who needs to know how to manage vents.

This book is very poorly written. Example: Much of the very first chapter is about “Ventilator Settings Based on Pathophysiology” which describes how to deal with issues like I:E ratios and hyperinflation, issues that have not been discussed yet. The idea that reading the ten pages devoted to ABGs and memorizing the equations will make you the “Guru of the Gas” and “You don’t need to tell anyone how easy it is…” is simply absurd. There is no logical sequence of how important issues are discussed. For example, the issue of compliance is part of the assist-control chapter, even though it applies to every mode of ventilation. The writing throughout is breezy and friendly, not particularly concerned with clarifying or explaining. If you don’t know about ventilators, this is not a good place to start.

I’m an RN and was looking for further my knowledge on ventilators especially with the recent surge of covid and in my unit we have had a lot of intubated patients. The chapter regarding APRV and covid does exceptionally well at explaining and breaking it down for you. Have even had a pulmonologist look over this book for me and he said he would recommend it to his students.

As a nurse I’m trying to broaden my “respiratory therapy horizons” a bit. I like to learn anything that will make me a better nurse.

Good book and information except that my copy is missing a few pages. Some pages printed blank and cut off the previous sentences or paragraphs. If I had the full book like what I paid for and not this copy with missprinted pages it would be 5 stars.

I purchased this at the recommendation of Scott Weingart from Emcrit, but while reading it in my office, several other providers have commented on how it’s a classic of basic ventilator mastery. I had a fair understanding of how to manage vents before reading this, but this explained things in a much better way than I’d learned before and is a very practical guide to understanding and managing vents. Would highly recommend for interns/residents, APPs in the ICU and hospitalists who occasionally have to manage vents.

Purchased this for my husband on his birthday – we are both internal medicine residents and he is planning on pursuing a career in critical care medicine, and this book was recommended by a colleague. It is a kitschy, fun read (never thought this was possible for something as dry as changing vent settings) – would be a great start for an intern, probably more that you would need to know. Reviews setting changes in a fun, memorable way. Even have several pulmonary ICU attendings who often quote this book whom I thought were just being goofy on rounds – you’ll definitely be in the “know” if this is your niche/are a medicine resident trying to master the basics of vents – and beyond!

I’ve been waiting for this book for my whole career!I’m an anaesthetist and know how to ventilate people safely for pretty much any surgery. I’ve always found icu ventilation to be far more complex and frankly, somewhat over my head. I’m a simple soul and like to have stuff explained as such. This book does exactly that. It makes sense and tells me what I need to know. It doesn’t blind one with science and for this, I’m eternally grateful. If you’re a mathematical/curve/equations type then this probably isn’t what you’re looking for. If you are a bit ashamed to admit that you’ve got many, many unanswered ventilator questions quite late in your career and you want to have a practical, clinical understanding of the whole affair then buy this now. It’s easy to read, it’s humble and it’s been my most useful purchase in yonks.

A good simple summary for anyone who is working with ventilators. While it does not have (or aim to have) the depth required for those attempting to complete academic courses, it does provide simple pointers and reminders that will assist and make a person think who works from day to day with a ventilator.

I found this book a pleasure to read! As an Anesthesiologist who works in the OR, I am not particularly familiar with the ventilator settings in the Critical Care. I am really happy that I found all the useful equations and their clinical applications, in a few pages explained in simple words. Undoubtedly this book was written by a doctor with a great experience who has passed many hours on the side of the bed of the ventilated patient… Congratulations

Very interesting book, deserving 5* classificationHowever, book arrived torn with bendings all over the cover. It was bought as new but it doesn’t look like it.Also, estimated arrival was 2 business days after purchasing (which I payed more for) and arrived almost two weeks after.Terrible service from amazon

Very good and practical book. Easy to read. Explaine everything in simple terms. No rubbish. Only what you need to know for regular practice.The only thing – lots of typo miskates in one of the chapter of my kindle format.