Enhancing the Deployability of the Sotair to Improve Ventilation and Survivability During Prolonged Field Care
Abstract
Severe trauma is often accompanied by acute respiratory failure in which patients struggle to breathe. In such cases, artificial ventilation is used to provide oxygen to the lungs and remove carbon dioxide. While mechanical ventilators can provide consistent and safe ventilation, these machines are often heavy/bulky, expensive, require training, and rely on a power source, which can make them difficult to use for transport or in far-forward/austere settings without a reliable and consistent source of power. Therefore, manual resuscitators such as bag valve masks (BVMs) are often used in these cases, in which a provider squeezes a bag to deliver air into the patient’s lungs. Unfortunately, research has shown that even well-trained providers are prone to overventilation, providing higher pressures, flow rates, and volumes than are safe for patients. Overventilation can be dangerous, resulting in numerous complications such as ventilator-induced lung injury and compromise to the cardiovascular system, which may increase the risk of death and prolong recovery. To improve the safety of manual ventilation, SafeBVM has developed the Sotair, a small, lightweight, non-powered device that attaches to standard manual resuscitators and uses a custom automatic flow and pressure regulation valve to prevent dangerously high pressures, flow rates, and volumes. In this way, the Sotair virtually eliminates the delivery of breaths with pressures above commonly accepted safe guidelines. This is especially critical in the case of extended manual ventilation, such as may occur in some prehospital and battlefield situations. In particular, the Sotair could be used as a last resort to provide safe extended manual ventilation of military personnel during prolonged field care (PFC) should a mechanical ventilator not be available. To evaluate this possibility, this project will include the following: (1) environmental testing to ensure the proper operation of the Sotair under conditions likely to be encountered during military transport, storage, and deployment; development of a novel airflow sensors for field testing; (2) a PFC study in pigs, in which personnel will take shifts manually ventilating sedated pigs with or without the Sotair; (3) a field usability study in which usability feedback will be solicited from potential end users (medics, nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors from all Service branches); development of military training materials; and (4) a human PFC performance study, in which we will determine how long personnel can perform manual ventilation on a lung simulator before performance degrades. This project will investigate the ability of the Sotair to provide safer extended manual ventilation in austere settings. This project addresses the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program Topic Area of Respiratory Health, Continuum of Care of Treatment, and Strategic Goal of developing improved fieldable devices to treat traumatic/acute lung injury in far-forward settings, including toolsets to enable correct airway placement, oxygenation in austere settings, or miniature and/or semi-automated ventilators. The Sotair is relevant to this goal as it is a fieldable device that decreases the conditions causing lung injury during ventilation and enables improved ventilation in far-forward, austere, and PFC settings.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 04, 2024
- Source ID
- HT94252310316
Entities
People
- Prathamesh Prabhudesai
Organizations
- United States Army