Early Cycling Vs Early Trigger

Early cycling and early trigger can produce similar waveform patterns during the expiratory phase, making them challenging to distinguish. The following example highlights the key differences between the two.

In early cycling, the breath is initiated by the patient, but the neural inspiratory effort continues beyond the ventilator’s inspiratory phase, resulting in an upward deflection in the expiratory flow–time scalar.

In contrast, during early trigger, the breath is initiated by the ventilator, while the patient’s neural inspiration occurs later—toward the end of the ventilator’s inspiratory phase—and extends into expiration, producing a similar upward deflection in the expiratory flow–time scalar.

Thus, the main distinction lies in the trigger phase:

• In early cycling, the patient triggers the breath.

• In early trigger, the ventilator triggers the breath.