Mechanical Ventilation Test 4 Practice 2026 – Your All-in-One Resource for Exam Success!

Breaths are started by the patient, with no breaths forced by the ventilator. In this mode, the patient’s own respiratory drive triggers each breath, and the ventilator merely adds support on top of the patient-initiated effort—there are no mandatory breaths or a set rate imposed by the machine. This preserves the patient’s natural breathing pattern and diaphragmatic activity.

CPAP with pressure support also involves patient-initiated breaths with ventilator assistance, but the defining idea here is that there are no mandated breaths from the ventilator. The terms about overdistension or leaks relate to lung mechanics or system issues, not to who initiates the breaths.