Fig. 3

Experimental study design. Five rabbits underwent the experimental procedure (MV group). After anesthesia induction, the rabbits underwent the surgical procedure (see text for details) followed by baseline ventilation on the Carestation to determine ventilation settings for the remainder of the experiment. Afterwards, a subgroup of rabbits (n = 3) was ventilated with the Carestation first followed by the FALCON, the rest (n = 2) ventilated in the reverse order. One rabbit (indicated by *) was further ventilated on the FALCON at varying respiratory rates (at 30, 40, 60, and 120 breaths/min) for 5 min each. After ventilation, the rabbits were euthanized, and lung tissue samples were collected. Three spontaneously breathing rabbits (SB group) were anesthetized and euthanized for healthy lung tissue collection