Bronchiolectasis Caused By Positive End-Expiratory Pressure

Bronchiolectasis in patients with respiratory failure who are ventilated artificially with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) appears to be associated with increased physiologic dead space. We found that the survival rate of 40 patients ventilated with PEEP was not significantly different from that of a control series of patients not receiving PEEP. Pulmonary function values, including the dead-space/tidal-volume ratio, returned to normal for the five PEEP patients in whom these variables were measured.