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Ventilation volume is the amount of air moved through the lungs in a minute, varying depending on activity and health. Gas exchange occurs in the lungs, exchanging waste for oxygen. Ventilation volume affects the body’s oxygen supply, and can be measured through spirometry. Healthcare professionals adjust ventilation volume for patients who cannot breathe on their own.
Ventilation volume refers to the amount of air that is moved through the lungs within a specific amount of time, typically one minute. The volume of ventilation can vary considerably, depending on what someone is doing and someone’s state of health. A human at rest, for example, will have a lower ventilation volume than an athlete in peak condition sprinting for the finish line. In the case of patients on a respirator, the ventilation volume is one of the things that can be controlled to keep the patient comfortable and ensure the patient is getting enough oxygen to live.
Humans and many other organisms breathe because their cells need oxygen. Every time someone takes a breath that brings air into the lungs, a gas exchange takes place within the lungs. Waste products such as carbon dioxide are exchanged for oxygen in the air, allowing these waste materials to be flushed out of the body when the person exhales as the oxygen is carried to the cells in the bloodstream. Ventilation volume has a large impact on the amount of oxygen available to the body.
When someone is physically exercising, the body needs more oxygen, which is why people breathe hard after climbing a flight of stairs and why athletes breathe hard while competing or training. Conversely, a person at rest should not have a very high oxygen requirement. For those Explained readers who are curious about how hyperventilation works, hyperventilation leads to a depletion of carbon dioxide levels in the blood, which causes the pH of the blood to rise, leading to constriction of blood vessels and resulting in lightheadedness. .
The volume of ventilation in a human can be measured by determining how many breaths are taken each minute and measuring how much air someone is able to breathe in and out with each breath. A medical testing technique known as spirometry can be used to determine how much air you can breathe to make inferences about ventilation volume and to gather data about a chronic medical condition such as asthma.
In the case of someone who cannot breathe on their own, the ventilation volume should be checked by a healthcare professional or first responder. In cardiopulmonary resuscitation, for example, the volume of ventilation depends on the number of breaths delivered to the patient each minute. Patients on ventilators used for rescue breathing have their ventilation volume adjusted by changing settings on the ventilator to increase or decrease the amount of air flowing through the lungs each minute.
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