TY - JOUR T1 - Evaluation of 4 New Generation Portable Ventilators JF - Respiratory Care SP - 264 LP - 272 DO - 10.4187/respcare.01994 VL - 58 IS - 2 AU - Thomas C Blakeman AU - Richard D Branson Y1 - 2013/02/01 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/58/2/264.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND: Portable ventilators are increasingly utilized in the intra- and inter-hospital transport of patients. We evaluated 4 portable ventilators, Impact EMV, CareFusion LTV 1200, Newport HT70, and Hamilton T1, in terms of triggering, delivered tidal volume (VT) accuracy, battery duration, delivered FIO2 accuracy, and gas consumption. METHODS: Triggering was tested using a microprocessor controlled breathing simulator that simulated a weak, normal, and aggressive inspiratory effort using muscle pressures of −2, −4, and −8 cm H2O respectively. Delivered VT and FIO2 accuracy were evaluated across a range of operation. To determine gas consumption, the ventilators were attached to an E type oxygen cylinder and operated at an FIO2 of 1.0 until the tank was depleted. Battery duration was tested by operating each ventilator at an FIO2 of 0.21 until the device ceased to operate. RESULTS: Differences remain among devices in several aspects of the testing protocol. Gas consumption ranged from 9.2 to 16 L/min. Battery duration ranged from 101 to 640 min. Triggering performance varied among devices but was consistent breath to breath within the same device, using the fastest and slowest rise time settings. FIO2 accuracy varied at the low range on the 50 mL VT setting with one device, and at the high range on both the 50 mL and 500 mL VT settings with another. CONCLUSIONS: Manufacturers continue to improve the performance of portable ventilators. All the ventilators we tested performed well on VT delivery across a range of settings, using both the internal drive mechanism (FIO2 0.21) and compressed oxygen (FIO2 1.0). Two of the ventilators were unable to deliver accurate FIO2 across the range of VT. None of the devices was clearly superior to the others in all aspects of our evaluation. ER -