by
Laurent Brochard;
Greg Martin;
Lluis Blanch;
Paolo Pelosi;
F. Javier Belda;
Amal Jubran;
Luciano Gattinoni;
Jordi Mancebo;
V. Marco Ranieri;
Jean-Christophe M. Richard;
Diederik Gommers;
Antoine Vieillard-Baron;
Antonio Pesenti;
Samir Jaber;
Ola Stenqvist;
Jean-Louis Vincent
Monitoring plays an important role in the current management of patients with acute respiratory failure but sometimes lacks definition regarding which 'signals' and 'derived variables' should be prioritized as well as specifics related to timing (continuous versus intermittent) and modality (static versus dynamic). Many new techniques of respiratory monitoring have been made available for clinical use recently, but their place is not always well defined. Appropriate use of available monitoring techniques and correct interpretation of the data provided can help improve our understanding of the disease processes involved and the effects of clinical interventions. In this consensus paper, we provide an overview of the important parameters that can and should be monitored in the critically ill patient with respiratory failure and discuss how the data provided can impact on clinical management.