White Luke A, Mackay Ryan P, Solitro Giovanni F, Conrad Steven A, Alexander J Steven
Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, LSU Health Shreveport, Shreveport, LA, United States.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, LSU Health Shreveport, Shreveport, LA, United States.
Front Physiol. 2021 Mar 22;12:642353. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.642353. eCollection 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an immense, unmet and international need for available ventilators. Both clinical and engineering groups around the globe have responded through the development of "homemade" or do-it-yourself (DIY) ventilators. Several designs have been prototyped, tested, and shared over the internet. However, many open source DIY ventilators require extensive familiarity with microcontroller programming and electronics assembly, which many healthcare providers may lack. In light of this, we designed and bench tested a low-cost, pressure-controlled mechanical ventilator that is "plug and play" by design, where no end-user microcontroller programming is required. This Fast-AssembLy COVID-Nineteen (FALCON) emergency prototype ventilator can be rapidly assembled and could be readily modified and improved upon to potentially provide a ventilatory option when no other is present, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
We anticipated that a minimal component prototype ventilator could be easily assembled that could reproduce pressure/flow waveforms and tidal volumes similar to a hospital grade ventilator (Engström Carestation).
We benched-tested our prototype ventilator using an artificial test lung under 36 test conditions with varying respiratory rates, peak inspiratory pressures (PIP), positive end expiratory pressures (PEEP), and artificial lung compliances. Pressure and flow waveforms were recorded, and tidal volumes calculated with prototype ventilator performance compared to a hospital-grade ventilator (Engström Carestation) under identical test conditions.
Pressure and flow waveforms produced by the prototype ventilator were highly similar to the Carestation. The ventilator generated consistent PIP/PEEP, with tidal volume ranges similar to the Carestation. The FALCON prototype was tested continuously for a 5-day period without failure or significant changes in delivered PIP/PEEP.
The FALCON prototype ventilator is an inexpensive and easily-assembled "plug and play" emergency ventilator design. The FALCON ventilator is currently a non-certified prototype that, following further appropriate validation and testing, might eventually be used as a life-saving emergency device in extraordinary circumstances when more sophisticated forms of ventilation are unavailable.
新冠疫情暴露出全球对可用呼吸机存在巨大的、未得到满足的需求。全球的临床和工程团队都通过开发“自制”或“自己动手做”（DIY）呼吸机做出了回应。已经有几种设计制作出了原型，进行了测试，并在互联网上分享。然而，许多开源的DIY呼吸机需要对微控制器编程和电子组装有深入了解，而许多医疗保健提供者可能并不具备这些知识。有鉴于此，我们设计并在实验台上测试了一种低成本、压力控制的机械呼吸机，该呼吸机在设计上是“即插即用”的，无需终端用户进行微控制器编程。这种快速组装的新冠19（FALCON）紧急原型呼吸机可以快速组装，并且可以很容易地进行修改和改进，以便在没有其他选择时，尤其是在低收入和中等收入国家，提供一种通气选择。
我们预计可以轻松组装一个组件最少的原型呼吸机，它能够产生与医院级呼吸机（Engström Carestation）相似的压力/流量波形和潮气量。
我们使用人工测试肺在36种测试条件下对我们的原型呼吸机进行了实验台测试，这些条件包括不同的呼吸频率、吸气峰压（PIP）、呼气末正压（PEEP）和人工肺顺应性。记录压力和流量波形，并计算潮气量，同时将原型呼吸机的性能与在相同测试条件下的医院级呼吸机（Engström Carestation）进行比较。
原型呼吸机产生的压力和流量波形与Carestation高度相似。该呼吸机产生一致的PIP/PEEP，潮气量范围与Carestation相似。FALCON原型机连续测试了5天，没有出现故障，也没有在输送的PIP/PEEP方面出现显著变化。
FALCON原型呼吸机是一种廉价且易于组装的“即插即用”紧急呼吸机设计。FALCON呼吸机目前是一个未经认证的原型，在经过进一步适当的验证和测试后，最终可能会在没有更复杂通气形式的特殊情况下用作救生紧急设备。
