A medical ventilator is a kind of machine that assists your lungs in working correctly. It acts as a life-saving machine when you have a condition that makes it difficult for you to breathe voluntarily.
A ventilator assists in pushing air in and out of your lungs so that your body receives the required amount of oxygen. Patients wear a fitting mask for getting oxygen from the ventilator to their lungs. When the condition is serious, a breathing tube is inserted into the throat to supply oxygen to the lungs.
Mainly ventilators are used in hospital settings. A doctor or a respiration therapist controls how much oxygen should be pushed into your lungs by the ventilator.
But now, what role does a humidifier and a nebulizer play in a ventilator?
Humidifiers in ventilators
For a long time, humidification of inhaled gas has been one of the standards of care in ventilation. For decades, various reports have proved vital airway damage through the application of dry gasses at the time of artificial ventilation. As a result, respiratory therapists started using external humidifiers to compensate for the lack of humidification mechanisms when the upper airway is bypassed. Mainly, active and passive humidification is evolving very rapidly. Some sophisticated systems consist of reservoirs, heating devices, and many other elements that have now become a common armamentarium in ICU.
Kinds of humidifiers
Humidifiers mainly add water molecules to gas. They are divided into active and passive humidifiers depending on the existence or non-existence of an external source of water and heat or use of the patient’s temperature as well as hydration for achieving humidification in succeeding breaths.
Active humidifiers: This acts by facilitating air passage inside a heated water reservoir. This device is positioned in the respiratory limb of the ventilator circuit. When the air in the reservoir is filled with water vapor, it travels along the inspiration limb to the patient’s airway. The system is provided with water traps that need frequent evacuation to avoid the accumulation of condensed water vapors to avoid circuit contamination.
Passive humidifiers: These are heat and moisture exchangers or HMEs. They are also known as artificial noses as they imitate the nasal cavity action in gas humidification.
Role of nebulizers in ventilators
In patients with mechanical ventilation, delivering aerosols presents a unique challenge and is different from breathing in drug delivery in impulsively living patients in varied aspects. For effective aerosol delivery during invasive mechanical ventilation, there is a need for several considerations of various factors that influence the amount of drug any patient inhales. Here comes the role of nebulizers which delivers aerosols to such patients.
When a patient is in ventilators, several things like bronchodilators, antibiotics, mucolytics, prostanoids, etc., are administered depending on various indications. This is achieved through nebulizers. Three main nebulizer designs are used for delivering medications to ventilated patients: jet nebulizers, ultrasonic nebulizers, and vibrating mesh nebulizers.
Conclusion
Both nebulizers and humidifiers convert’ liquid to vapors or mist and can be drawn to the lower respiratory tract. But while nebulizers are used intermittently, humidifiers are used consistently, which indicates humidification has more effect.
At MediHouse, we have a range of Humidifiers and Nebulizers of high quality and durability.
Contact us for booking orders and home deliveries
Phone Number – 9400630000
Whatsapp – 9447771361
Email – MediTvm@gmail.com