A new negative pressure ventilator which could provide additional treatment options for patients with respiratory failure, including those with COVID-19 - and whose design can be easily adapted to developing countries - has been created by a team that includes anaesthetists, nurses and engineers. Details on the new exovent system - which is similar in design but much smaller in scale and easier to use than the devices used to help treat polio patients during the 1950s - are published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists).
Use of this system would offer more comfort to patients, who would not need to be asleep or have an artificial airway in place, although the authors make it clear that a clinical trial is required to fully test it. After monitoring patients closely at first, the system would also mean less nursing care and could be used anywhere in the hospital, and even potentially at home. Staffing requirements for the new system would be typically much lower than for today's typical intensive care unit ventilators, and lower than other non-intensive positive pressure systems for the equivalent severity of illness.
Seven days may not be enough
