Performance Evaluation of a Low-Cost Non-Invasive Ventilator during the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Bench Study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 breakout, a global call for low-cost portable ventilators was made following the strong demand for ventilatory support techniques. Among a few development projects, COVIDair non-invasive ventilator was developed and produced in a record time during the critical period of spring 2020. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate COVIDair performance (i.e., inspiratory trigger delay time, TDT, pressurization time and inspiratory to expiratory time ratio, IE) on a test bench simulating physiological characteristics of breathing. METHOD: Performance tests were conducted on a breathing simulator (ASL 5000, IngMar Medical™) in two different lung mechanics (i.e., normal and severe restrictive). RESULTS: Under normal pulmonary mechanics, the inspiratory TDT is on average between 89.0 (±2.1) and 135.0 (±9.7) ms. In a situation of severe restrictive pulmonary mechanics, the inspiratory TDT is on average between 80 (±3.1) and 99.2 (±5.5) ms. Pressurization time to pre-set inspiratory pressure was on average from 234.6 (±5.5) to 318.6 (±1.9) ms. The absolute difference between the actual IE cycling measure and the pre-set IE cycling value ranged from 0.1 to 10.7% on average. CONCLUSION: In normal and severe restrictive pulmonary mechanics scenarios, the performance of COVIDair meets the expected standards for non-invasive ventilators.