Pulsed Dose Oxygen Delivery During Mechanical Ventilation: Impact on Oxygenation.

Introduction: Adequate oxygenation is one of the primary goals of mechanical ventilation. Maintenance of adequate oxygenation and prevention of hypoxemia are the primary goals for the battlefield casualty, but military operations have unique concerns. In military operations, oxygen is a limited resource. A portable oxygen concentrator has the advantage of operating solely from electrical power and theoretically is a never-exhausting supply of oxygen. Our previous bench work demonstrated that the pulsed dose setting of the concentrator can be used in concert with the ventilator to maximize oxygen delivery. We evaluated this ventilator/concentrator system with closed loop control of oxygen output in a porcine model. Materials and Methods: The Zoll 731 portable ventilator and Sequal Saros portable oxygen concentrator were used for this study. The ventilator and concentrator were connected via a USB cable to allow communication. The ventilator was modified to allow closed loop control of oxygen based on the oxygen saturation (SpO(2)) via the integral pulse oximetry sensor. The ventilator communicates with the concentrator to increase or decrease oxygen bolus size to maintain a target SpO(2) of 94%. Three separate experiments were conducted in this study. Experiments 1 and 2 used oxygen bolus sizes 16-96 mL in 16-mL increments and experiment 3 used 1 mL increments. The oxygen bolus was delivered from the concentrator and injected into the ventilator circuit at the patient connector. Six pigs were used for each experiment. Experiment 1, done without lung injury, was completed to determine the optimum timing during the respiratory cycle for injecting the oxygen bolus. Lung injury for experiments 2 and 3 was induced in the animals by warmed saline lavage via the endotracheal tube until PaO2/FIO2 decreased to <100. The pigs were then placed on the ventilator/concentrator system and allowed to adjust the oxygen autonomously to determine if the target SpO(2) could be maintained. PEEP was manually adjusted. Arterial blood gases were drawn to verify the PaO2 and the SpO(2)/SaO(2) correlation. Results: Experiment 1 showed that the O-2 bolus injected into the ventilator circuit 300 ms before breath delivery produced the highest PaO2. Mean PaO2/FIO2 was 500 +/- 33 for experiments 2 and 3 before lung lavage and 72 +/- 11 after lung lavage (p < 0.001), representing severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. Thirty minutes after placing the animals on the ventilator/concentrator system, the bolus size range was 64-96 mL and 16-96 mL after 2 hours (p < 0.05). The SpO(2) range was 81-95% after 30 minutes and 94-98% after 2 hours (p < 0.05). PEEP range was 5-14 cm H2O. The SpO(2) to SaO(2) difference was <= 4% throughout the evaluation. Conclusions: The ventilator/concentrator system was able to manage oxygenation of severely injured lungs in a porcine model by injecting oxygen boluses at the front end of the ventilator breath, and appropriate use of PEEP to maximize oxygen delivery at the alveolar level. This proof of concept ventilator system may prove to be of use in situations where high-pressure oxygen is unavailable but electricity is accessible.