Basing Respiratory Management of Coronavirus on Physiological Principles

The dominant respiratory feature of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is arterial hypoxemia greatly exceeding abnormalities in pulmonary mechanics (decreased compliance) (1–3). Many patients are intubated and placed on mechanical ventilation early in their course. Projections on usage of ventilators has led to fears that insufficient machines will be available and even to proposals for using a single machine to ventilate four patients.