A low-cost, highly functional, emergency use ventilator for the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Respiratory failure complicates most critically ill patients with COVID-19 and is characterized by heterogeneous pulmonary parenchymal involvement, profound hypoxemia and pulmonary vascular injury. The high incidence of COVID-19 related respiratory failure has exposed critical shortages in the supply of mechanical ventilators, and providers with the necessary skills to treat. Traditional mass-produced ventilators rely on an internal compressor and mixer to moderate and control the gas mixture delivered to a patient. However, the current emergency has energized the pursuit of alternative designs, enabling greater flexibility in supply chain, manufacturing, storage, and maintenance considerations. To achieve this, we hypothesized that using the medical gasses and flow interruption strategy would allow for a high performance, low cost, functional ventilator. A low-cost ventilator designed and built-in accordance with the Emergency Use guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is presented wherein pressurized medical grade gases enter the ventilator and time limited flow interruption determines the ventilator rate and tidal volume. This simple strategy obviates the need for many components needed in traditional ventilators, thereby dramatically shortening the time from storage to clinical deployment, increasing reliability, while still providing life-saving ventilatory support. The overall design philosophy and its applicability in this new crisis is described, followed by both bench top and animal testing results used to confirm the precision, safety and reliability of this low cost and novel approach to mechanical ventilation. The ventilator meets and exceeds the critical requirements included in the FDA emergency use guidelines. The ventilator has received emergency use authorization from the FDA.