The conversion, which is simple for any anesthesia professional to per-
form, involves removing the anesthetic gas vaporizers and adding a
humidity-heat-viral exchange filter to the breathing circuit. That's it.
Why it works
A ventilator is just one of the many components that makes up an
anesthesia machine. When a patient is unconscious, anesthetic
medications we use cause the patient to stop breathing; the built-in
ventilator takes over that function for the patient by means of
mechanical ventilation. If you simply place the patient on an anes-
thesia machine and do not turn on the anesthetic gases, it's essen-
tially a ventilator.
An anesthesia machine's vaporizers house anesthetic gases, which
you won't need when using the machine as a ventilator. It's important
to remove them so someone doesn't inadvertently turn on anesthesia
while a patient is being ventilated. The heat and humidity exchange
filters add humidity to the breathing circuit, ensuring the airway stays
warm and moist. The exchange devices also filter bacteria and virus-
es, helping to keep the anesthesia machines clean and safe to use.
Anesthesia professionals need to always be present to operate
the anesthesia machine and manage its use as a ventilator. Ideally,
an anesthesia provider can oversee three or four of these machines
at once. If an alarm goes off on the machine, an anesthesia
provider would need to be ready to tend to that alarm, which is
only heard in the patient's immediate area. They cannot be tied to
a central monitoring system as you would typically find in a tradi-
tional ICU. The close monitoring of patients is imperative.
Anesthesia machines do not have the same specialized functionali-
ty of typical standalone ventilators, which may offer additional
breathing support modes. For example, if the patient has a certain
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