Monitoring Lung Recruitment Maneuver in Anesthetized Morbidly Obese

A Lung recruitment maneuver is aimed to resolve atelectasis during mechanical ventilation. It consists in a brief and controlled increment in airways pressure using pressure control ventilation. Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) is increases every 5 centimeters of water (cmH2O), from 0 to 20 cmH2O keeping a fixed driving pressure of 20 cmH2O. A final step of 40 cmH2O of plateau pressure was maintained for 10 breaths, returning then to standard ventilatory settings.