The respiratory therapist enters the room of an intubated and mechanically ventilated patient to find the low pressure, low exhaled volume, and low VE alarms active. The ventilator circuit is connected to the patient's endotracheal tube

This situation could be caused by which of the following?
a. Improper flow rate and flow pattern.
b. Poorly responsive internal demand valve.
c. Migration of the ET tube into the upper airway.
d. The patient is continuing to actively in-hale.

ANS: C
A combination of low pressure, low exhaled volume, and low VE alarms indicates a leak in the patient-ventilator system. This can be caused by migration of the ET tube into the upper airway. Because there is no longer a seal, gas does not travel into the lungs. Active inhalation may acti-vate the low pressure alarm, but it would not activate the low volume and low VE alarms. On the contrary, there may be more volume than set on current ventilators.