The Use of Bronchial Blockers for Providing One-Lung Ventilation

BSOLUTE INDICATIONS FOR providing one-lung ventilation (OLV) include the isolation of one lung to avoid the contamination of a contralateral lung from either blood or infectious material or to provide positive-pressure ventilation to one lung in the presence of either a bulla or bronchopleural fistula in the other lung. Additional indications for OLV are to facilitate surgery in cases such as video-assisted thoracoscopy (VAT), lung resections, esophageal surgery, thoracic spine surgery, and open repair of the descending thoracic aorta. Surgeries using VAT, in particular, require OLV because the surgeon has limited ability to otherwise retract and operate on the lung. These indications are summarized in Table 1.