PATIENT VENTILATOR AND CONTROLLER THEREFOR

There is provided a ventilator (100) to ventilate an airway (112) of a patient. The ventilator (100) has a conduit (114) having an inlet (114a) and an outlet (114b), said outlet (114b) configured to be connected to said airway (112); a gas delivery element (116) in fluid communication with said inlet (114a), said gas delivery element (116) configured to deliver air in a sequence of ventilation cycles, each ventilation cycle defined by a corresponding tidal volume to be delivered to said airway (112) via said conduit (114), each tidal volume corresponding to a difference between a start volume and an end volume of said gas delivery element (116) for that ventilation cycle; a pressure sensor (120) monitoring pressure within said conduit (114); a controller (122) communicatively coupled to said gas delivery element (116) and said pressure sensor (120), said controller (122) performing reducing said tidal volume between a first ventilation cycle and a successive second ventilation cycle contingent upon said pressure exceeding a pressure threshold in said first ventilation cycle.