The changes in delivered oxygen fractions using laerdal resuscitator bag with different types of reservoir.

One of the disadvantages of the Laerdal resuscitator bag is that it does not deliver a high concentration of oxygen without a reservoir and an appropriate technique of ventilation. With a specific device that is able to compress a resuscitator bag mechanically at a regular volume, ventilator rate, and speed, we evaluated the effects of various factors (the tidal volume, the ventilator rate, the oxygen flow rate, the type of reservoir) of the Laerdal resuscitator bag during positive pressure ventilation that affect the delivered oxygen fraction (FDO2) and also whether 250 mL and 500 mL corrugated tubes could be used as substitutes for the reservoir bag. The 250 mL corrugated tube increased the FDO2 to over 96% with an oxygen flow rate of 15 L/min. The 500 mL corrugated tube increased the FDO2 to over 96% with an oxygen flow rate of 10 L/min regardless of the ventilator rate at a fixed tidal volume of 500 mL. At the identical fixed tidal volume of 500 mL, the 1,600 mL reservoir bag increased the FDO2 to over 92% with an oxygen flow rate of 5 L/min and to over 96% at 7.5 L/min regardless of the ventilator rate. We concluded that the FDO2 of the Laerdal resuscitator bag depends on various factors such as tidal volume, ventilator rate, oxygen flow rate, and type of reservoir and both the 250 mL and 500 mL corrugated tubes can be used as substitutes.