What is the Difference Between Barotrauma and Volutrauma

The key difference between barotrauma and volutrauma is that barotrauma is a condition that occurs when sudden changes in air or water pressure damage the physical body organs such as the ear, lungs, and sinuses, while volutrauma is a complication that occurs due to ultrastructural lung injury by over-distention happening during mechanical ventilation.

Both barotrauma and volutrauma can cause physical damage to internal body organs. They particularly result in lung injuries that have to be managed immediately. However, barotrauma and volutrauma have different aetiologies and treatment regimes.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Barotrauma  
3. What is Volutrauma
4. Similarities – Barotrauma and Volutrauma
5. Barotrauma vs Volutrauma in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Barotrauma vs Volutrauma

What is Barotrauma?

Barotrauma occurs when sudden changes in air or water pressure damage physical body organs such as ears, lungs, and sinuses.  Ear barotrauma is a common example of barotrauma. Other common examples of barotrauma are pulmonary and sinus barotrauma (sinus squeeze or barosinusitis). Barotrauma is caused when the outside air or water pressure changes faster than the body can safely adapt to them. Moreover, symptoms of ear barotrauma may include severe ear pain, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and feeling disoriented, while symptoms of pulmonary barotrauma may include chest pain, shortness of breath, bloody nose, bloody froth at the mouth; symptoms of sinus barotrauma may include facial pain, headaches, bloody nose, and congestion.

Barotrauma can be diagnosed through physical examination, MRI, hearing testing, chest X-rays to evaluate lung damage, examining the inside of the nose with an endoscope, and computed tomography (CT) scan to obtain images of the sinuses. The treatment options for ear injury barotrauma are decongestants and a surgery called tympanoplasty. Moreover, the treatment option for pulmonary barotrauma is oxygen therapy, while the treatment option for sinus barotrauma is prescribed decongestants.

What is Volutrauma?

Volutrauma is a complication that occurs from mechanical ventilation that may manifest as extra alveolar air or acute ventilator-induced lung injury. The over-stretching of airways and alveoli causes Volutrauma. Moreover, the signs and symptoms of volutrauma may include severe injury to the alveoli that results in swelling of the tissues or edema in the lungs, bleeding of the alveoli, decrease in lung compliance, alveolar rupture, and complete alveoli collapse.

Volutrauma can be diagnosed through physical examination, chest X-ray, arterial blood gas to quantify the degree of respiratory compromise, and CT scan. Furthermore, treatment options for volutrauma may include lung protective ventilation, chest drains such as draining extra alveolar gas, and double-lumen tubes or differential lung ventilation.

What are the Similarities Between Barotrauma and Volutrauma?

• Barotrauma and volutrauma are two conditions that can cause physical damage to internal body organs.
• Both cause lung injuries, which lead to respiratory compromise.
• Both can be diagnosed through physical examinations and imaging tests.
• They can be treated through specific therapies.

What is the Difference Between Barotrauma and Volutrauma?

Barotrauma is a condition that occurs when sudden changes in air or water pressure damage the physical body organs such as ears, lungs, and sinuses, while volutrauma is a complication that occurs due to ultrastructural lung injury by overdistention happening during mechanical ventilation. Thus, this is the key difference between barotrauma and volutrauma. Furthermore, barotrauma is caused due to outside air or water pressure changes faster than the body can safely adapt to them. On the other hand, volutrauma is caused by the over-stretching of the airways and alveoli by high-volume ventilation.

The infographic below presents the differences between barotrauma and volutrauma in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Barotrauma vs Volutrauma

Both barotrauma and volutrauma can cause physical damage to internal body organs such as the lungs. They can result in respiratory compromise or collapse. Hence, they are life-threatening. Barotrauma occurs when sudden changes in air or water pressure damage the physical body organs such as ears, lungs, and sinuses, while volutrauma occurs due to ultrastructural lung injury due to overdistention of airways and alveoli occurring during mechanical ventilation. So, this summarizes the difference between barotrauma and volutrauma.

Reference:

1. Ioannidis, George, et al. “Barotrauma and Pneumothorax.” Journal of Thoracic Disease.
2. Gattinoni, Luciano, et al. “Volutrauma and Atelectrauma: Which Is Worse? – Critical Care.” BioMed Central.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Pneu” By Lucien Monfils – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia