There seems to be a lot of people on this site that know a lot about ventilators on this site. Good! I would like your taughts on this note:

I am a teacher at Collège de Rosemont, Montréal, Canada. I teach what we call ventilatory support (the use of ventilators) to future RRTs. I intend to buy a new ventilator in the next year, and all the sales rep make a very good case. But, when I saw the different posts on this site, I knew I could have a more "objective" , or at lease different view on the subject.

We currently have the following vents: Drager Evita 4, PB 840, PB 7200, Siemens Servo 300-A, Pulmonetics LTV-1000, Drager Babylog 8000+, Sechirst, Bear-33 (the last 2 are used only during the first of the 3 years curriculum, we feel that they are easier to understand at first). We also have 2 non-invasive devices: Vision and ST-D 30 from Respironics.

Personnaly, I think that we do not have the technology that will be used shortly, and that we might "lag" behind. HFOV is now widly used both in neonatate and adult university intensive care, so it might be a good vent to buy (Sensormedic 3100-B). Then again, the use on a plastic lung is not to realistic, and I fear that my students will not fully understand until they actually see it on a real patient.

So, how about getting ready for the 5TH generation of vents. Siemens Servo i looks great. The open lung tool could provide to be usefull for teaching, and I heard that they might include the oesophagal balloon soon. But, we bougth a few years ago a 300-A, and they just told us that they wont produce replacement pieces in a few years, meaning that no hospital will continue using 300-A. So, we wont be teaching it soon. A waste of the tax payers money...

The Avea from Viasys: great sales pitch, a lot of tools to teach, but I have not used it on a real patient. Does it meet the challenge. Do hospitals (in your area) buy this machine, which is new to the canadian market? Do we get over the "purpleness" of the vent, the screen, the curves...

And the futur: does any one use the eosophagal balloon? Is someone thinking about FV, or NAVA?

We have to buy somethning, and I would like it to be a "good call". Something usefull for the students, teachers and that is ACTUALLY done and used in real intasive care situations.

Any taughts on the subjet will be appreciated.

Sorry about the errors in misspelling or translating (English is my second language).

Merci beaucoup!

Roger J.Bellerose, inh (RRT)
Enseignant, Collège de Rosemont

You might be better served by renting the ventilators that you do not own. If you can allocate your funds towards renting, you could schedule a time period where you had the high frequency ventilator or Servo I, or any other ventilator that might be appropriate. The future of ventilation is always questionable. A ventilator that seems to be the next generation now may not be in a couple of years. If a ventilator adds an esophageal ballon for monitoring, I would not consider it the next generation. If they use the data to change how the ventilator responds to the patient, then it may be interesting. I am not seeing the next generation of ventilator at this point. The current advancement appears to be an active exhalation valve and maybe software to change the parameters in real time (PAV). Is it important, clinically? I would suggest renting a high frequency ventilator and maybe a ventilator with monitoring advancements. Hope that helps.

What a zig

Thank you. I never taught about renting... Good point about the future of ventilator too!

Thank you for your time!

Roger.

quote:

Originally posted by BMac:
You might be better served by renting the ventilators that you do not own. If you can allocate your funds towards renting, you could schedule a time period where you had the high frequency ventilator or Servo I, or any other ventilator that might be appropriate. The future of ventilation is always questionable. A ventilator that seems to be the next generation now may not be in a couple of years. If a ventilator adds an esophageal ballon for monitoring, I would not consider it the next generation. If they use the data to change how the ventilator responds to the patient, then it may be interesting. I am not seeing the next generation of ventilator at this point. The current advancement appears to be an active exhalation valve and maybe software to change the parameters in real time (PAV). Is it important, clinically? I would suggest renting a high frequency ventilator and maybe a ventilator with monitoring advancements. Hope that helps.