Good news for those tackling COVID-19 on the frontlines.
A group of Australian researchers have been experimenting with a new device that could allow for a safer method of ventilator splitting, if it must be used in cases of “extreme emergencies”, The Guardian reports.
Ventilators are needed for critically ill patients with coronavirus and other respiratory illnesses, but the practice of ventilator splitting – using a single ventilator to assist the breathing of two or more patients – is generally avoided because of the risk to patients.
However, in Italy and the United States, struggling intensive care units have been using ventilator-splitting to deal with the shortage of ventilators.
The Australian peer-reviewed study – which was led by Dr Alexander Clarke, of the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne and Monash University’s Dr Shaun Gregory – does not recommend ventilator splitting, but used a new device, built with common hospital parts, to act as a flow restrictor that has shown promising results.
“Getting more ventilators is mostly a logistics problem. This is a stopgap measure for that,” Dr Clarke said. “It’s a device that none of us ever want to see used, and it’s really just about something we can get up and running very quickly, using the parts you can scramble together.”
The researchers say they would now like to see further trials.
