Mechanical Ventilator for Respiratory Impaired Persons: A Review

Abstract

Mechanical ventilator is one of the most important devices used in anesthesia and intensive care units for generating a regulated flow of gas into a patient’s lungs. Oxygen is required by every human to stay alive and in cases where a patient is undergoing an acute respiratory distress, a mechanical ventilator is used to deliver external ventilation which could be generated from a hospital’s built in supply system or from a portable oxygen generator. The ventilator is connected to the patient’s lungs through an endotracheal tube (ETT) to deliver air by compressing a conventional bag-valve mask (BVM) with a pivoting cam arm, thereby eliminating the need for a human operator. The device also operates by setting some parameters which can be predetermined by clinicians as well as an assist control mode and an alarm to determine when the system is over pressured. The paper focuses on review of Mechanical ventilators, the different modes of ventilation, anatomy tract of the respiratory system, respiratory mechanics, and approaches of ventilation.