Team claims to have a better ventilator
Scientists say they have developed a way to reduce the permanent damage that can come with long-term use of mechanical ventilators.
An international team of researchers, led by a team from Boston University, reports that it has devised a new ventilator design that could have "a significant effect on morbidity by breaking the chain of injury propagation in acute lung injury." The results of their research were reported in the May 13 issue of the journal Nature.
Standard ventilators aid respiration in a steady, repetitive way. "The respiratory rate and volume of air inspired (drawn into the lungs) per breath are fixed, although during natural breathing these parameters vary appreciably," the researchers write.
The rhythms of conventional ventilator-driven breathing can leave certain areas of the lung closed for long periods of time, causing the eventual collapse of these tissues.
The researchers say they have developed a computer-controlled ventilation system that contains random variations within its programmed respiration pattern.
This breathing pattern closely resembles normal variations in shallow/deep breathing found in healthy respiration. The researchers believe their new ventilator design means "fewer (peripheral) regions will remain collapsed," reducing the level of lung tissue damage linked to assisted breathing.
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