Continuous mandatory ventilation

Continuous mandatory ventilation (CMV) is a mode of mechanical ventilation in which breaths are delivered based on set variables. In previous nomenclature, CMV referred to "controlled mechanical ventilation" ("control mode ventilation"), a mode of ventilation characterized by a ventilator that makes no effort to sense patient breathing effort. In continuous mandatory ventilation, the ventilator can be triggered either by the patient or mechanically by the ventilator. The ventilator is set to deliver a breath according to parameters selected by the operator. "Controlled mechanical ventilation" is an outdated expansion for "CMV"; "continuous mandatory ventilation" is now accepted standard nomenclature of mechanical ventilation. CMV today can assist or control dynamically, depending on transient presence or absence of spontaneous breathing effort. Thus, today's CMV would have been called ACV (assist-control ventilation) in older nomenclature, and the original form of CMV is a thing of the past. But despite continual technological improvement over the past half century, CMV sometimes may still be uncomfortable for the patient.