Mechanical Ventilation Exam 2 Practice 2026 – Comprehensive All-in-One Guide for Exam Success!

PEEP is used to keep alveoli open at the end of expiration, recruit collapsed units, and raise functional residual capacity so gas exchange improves. By keeping more lung units aerated, ventilation-perfusion matching improves and the arterial oxygen level rises, which is the main aim of using PEEP. Decreasing oxygen delivery would go against these goals, since the whole point is to enhance oxygenation. It’s true that very high PEEP can sometimes reduce venous return and cardiac output (a potential downside), but that is an unintended side effect, not what PEEP aims to achieve.