A Simple Ventilator Designed To Be Used in Shortage Crises: Construction and Verification Testing

  1. Daniel S Akerib
  2. Andrew Ames
  3. Martin Breidenbach
  4. Michael Bressack
  5. Pieter A Breur
  6. Eric Charles
  7. David M Gaba
  8. Ryan Herbst
  9. Christina M Ignarra
  10. Steffen Luitz
  11. Eric H Miller
  12. Brian Mong
  13. Tom A Shutt
  14. Matthias Wittgen

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the possibility of severe ventilator shortages in the near future.

Objective

We aimed to develop an acute shortage ventilator.

Methods

The ventilator was designed to mechanically compress a self-inflating bag resuscitator, using a modified ventilator patient circuit, which is controlled by a microcontroller and an optional laptop. It was designed to operate in both volume-controlled mode and pressure-controlled assist modes. We tested the ventilator in 4 modes using an artificial lung while measuring the volume, flow, and pressure delivered over time by the ventilator.

Results

The ventilator was successful in reaching the desired tidal volume and respiratory rates specified in national emergency use resuscitator system guidelines. The ventilator responded to simulated spontaneous breathing.

Conclusions

The key design goals were achieved. We developed a simple device with high performance for short-term use, made primarily from common hospital parts and generally available nonmedical components to avoid any compatibility or safety issues with the patient, and at low cost, with a unit cost per ventilator is less than $400 US excluding the patient circuit parts, that can be easily manufactured.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.2196/26047
  2. Version published to 10.2196/preprints.26047
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.20.20158147v2 on medRxiv
  4. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.20.20158147: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  5. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.20.20158147v1 on medRxiv