Erwan L'Her1, Annie Roy. 1. Département de Médecine Familiale et Médecine d'Urgence, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. erwan.lher@chu-brest.fr
Abstract
BACKGROUND: It has been pointed out that in the wake of a virulent flu strain, patients with survivable illness will die from lack of resources unless more ventilators are made available. Numerous disaster-type ventilators are available, but few evaluations have been performed. OBJECTIVE: To compare simple, lightweight, and handy ventilators that could be used in the initial care of patients with respiratory distress. METHODS: We bench-tested 4 volume-cycled ventilators (Carevent ALS, EPV100, Pneupac VR1, and Medumat Easy) and 2 pressure-cycled ventilators (Oxylator EMX and VAR-Plus). We studied their general physical characteristics, sonometry, gas consumption, technical performance, ergonomy, and user-friendliness. With a test lung we assessed performance at F(IO(2)) of 0.50 and 1.0, set compliance of 30, 70, and 120 mL/cm H(2)O, and set resistance of 5, 10, and 20 cm H(2)O/L/s. To study user-friendliness and ergonomy we conducted, in randomized order, 7 or 8 objective, quantitative tests and 2 subjective tests. RESULTS: Compliance and resistance strongly affected tidal volume with the pressure-cycled ventilators (from 418 ± 49 mL to 1,377 ± 444 mL with the VAR-Plus, at the lowest pressure level), whereas the volume-cycled ventilators provided a consistent tidal volume in the face of changing test lung characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: We are concerned that the pressure-cycled ventilators did not provide a consistent tidal volume, and under certain conditions the volume delivered would be unsafe (too large or too small). Most of the volume-cycled ventilators proved to be technically efficient and reliable. Their reliability, portability, and ease of use could make them valuable in natural disasters and mass-casualty events.
BACKGROUND: It has been pointed out that in the wake of a virulent flu strain, patients with survivable illness will die from lack of resources unless more ventilators are made available. Numerous disaster-type ventilators are available, but few evaluations have been performed. OBJECTIVE: To compare simple, lightweight, and handy ventilators that could be used in the initial care of patients with respiratory distress. METHODS: We bench-tested 4 volume-cycled ventilators (Carevent ALS, EPV100, Pneupac VR1, and Medumat Easy) and 2 pressure-cycled ventilators (Oxylator EMX and VAR-Plus). We studied their general physical characteristics, sonometry, gas consumption, technical performance, ergonomy, and user-friendliness. With a test lung we assessed performance at F(IO(2)) of 0.50 and 1.0, set compliance of 30, 70, and 120 mL/cm H(2)O, and set resistance of 5, 10, and 20 cm H(2)O/L/s. To study user-friendliness and ergonomy we conducted, in randomized order, 7 or 8 objective, quantitative tests and 2 subjective tests. RESULTS: Compliance and resistance strongly affected tidal volume with the pressure-cycled ventilators (from 418 ± 49 mL to 1,377 ± 444 mL with the VAR-Plus, at the lowest pressure level), whereas the volume-cycled ventilators provided a consistent tidal volume in the face of changing test lung characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: We are concerned that the pressure-cycled ventilators did not provide a consistent tidal volume, and under certain conditions the volume delivered would be unsafe (too large or too small). Most of the volume-cycled ventilators proved to be technically efficient and reliable. Their reliability, portability, and ease of use could make them valuable in natural disasters and mass-casualty events.
Authors: Jan Buytaert; Paula Collins; Adam Abed Abud; Phil Allport; Antonio Pazos Álvarez; Kazuyoshi Akiba; Oscar Augusto de Aguiar Francisco; Aurelio Bay; Florian Bernard; Sophie Baron; Claudia Bertella; Josef X Brunner; Themis Bowcock; Martine Buytaert-De Jode; Wiktor Byczynski; Ricardo De Carvalho; Victor Coco; Ruth Collins; Nikola Dikic; Nicolas Dousse; Bruce Dowd; Kārlis Dreimanis; Raphael Dumps; Paolo Durante; Walid Fadel; Stephen Farry; Antonio Fernàndez Prieto; Arturo Fernàndez Tèllez; Gordon Flynn; Vinicius Franco Lima; Raymond Frei; Abraham Gallas Torreira; Tonatiuh García Chàvez; Evangelos Gazis; Roberto Guida; Karol Hennessy; Andre Henriques; David Hutchcroft; Stefan Ilic; Artūrs Ivanovs; Aleksandar Jevtic; Emigdio Jimenez Dominguez; Christian Joram; Kacper Kapusniak; Edgar Lemos Cid; Jana Lindner; Rolf Lindner; M Ivàn Martínez Hernàndez; Mirko Meboldt; Marko Milovanovic; Sylvain Mico; Johan Morant; Michel Morel; Georg Männel; Dónal Murray; Irina Nasteva; Niko Neufeld; Igor Neuhold; Francisco Pardo-Sobrino López; Eliseo Pèrez Trigo; Gonzalo Pichel Jallas; Edyta Pilorz; Lise Piquilloud; Xavier Pons; David Reiner; Hector David Règules Medel; Saul Rodríguez Ramírez; Mario Rodíguez Cahuantzi; Carl Roosens; Philipp Rostalski; Freek Sanders; Eric Saucet; Marianne Schmid Daners; Burkhard Schmidt; Patrick Schoettker; Rainer Schwemmer; Heinrich Schindler; Archana Sharma; Derick Sivakumaran; Christophe Sigaud; Vasilios Spitas; Nicola Steffen; Peter Svihra; Guillermo Tejeda Muñoz; Nikolaos Tachatos; Efstratios Tsolakis; Jan van Leemput; Laurence Vignaux; Francois Vasey; Hamish Woonton; Ken Wyllie Journal: R Soc Open Sci Date: 2022-03-16 Impact factor: 2.963
Authors: Jayesh Dhanani; George Pang; Jason Pincus; Benjamin Ahern; Wendy Goodwin; Nicholas Cowling; Grant Whitten; Mohd H Abdul-Aziz; Steven Martin; Peter Corke; Kevin B Laupland Journal: BMC Res Notes Date: 2020-09-07