Pressure-Regulated Ventilator Splitting (PReVentS): A COVID-19 Response Paradigm from Yale University

Micha Sam Brickman Raredon; Clark Fisher; Paul Heerdt; Ranjit Deshpande; Steven Nivison; Elaine Fajardo; Shamsuddin Akhtar; Thomas Raredon; Laura E. Niklason

For this experiment, the circuit was connected to two mock lungs having similar compliance, and then the effective PEEP applied to Patient #2 (Lung B, Figure 14) , was increased by increasing the set point of the pressure-gated valve on the expiratory limb for Patient #2. The goal of this experiment was to determine the impact of changing effective PEEP of one patient on ventilatory pressures and gas flows. As is clear from Figure 15 , adjusting the set point of the expiratory valve for Patient #2 ("Lung B") from 5 to 20 cmH2O did not affect the ventilation pressures for Patient #1 ("Lung A" in Figure 15 ). In contrast, the effective PEEP for Patient #2 was increased from 5 to approximately 25 cmH2O by increasing the set point on the expiratory valve for Patient #2 from 5 to 20 cmH2O.