|
 History
of Ventilators
During the 1950s, Mechanical ventilators were progressively being used
in anesthesia and intensive care. The development of the ventilator was
inspired by need to treat polio patients and the use of muscle relaxants
during anesthesia. Muscle relaxants are given to patients to relax or
paralyze them during surgery. However, the relaxants also paralyze the
respiratory muscles, stopping breathing. The Bird ventilator was an
early gas power model used in the United Stated. The East Radcliffe and
Beaver models were used in the UK. Later models were powered by using an
automotive wiper motor to drive the bellows, which inflate the lungs.
Electric motors were a problem in the operating theatres during this
period, causing explosion hazards in the presence of ether and
cyclopropane that are highly flammable anesthetic gases.
At Westminster hospital, London, Roger Manley, in 1952 developed a
ventilator entirely gas driven. The Manleys Ventilator, the Mark I unit
became the most widely used ventilator with European anesthetists for
four decades. The system presented no explosion hazard. With the
partnership of the Blease Company, the Mark I was improved upon,
becoming the Manley Mark II. The Blease Company manufactured many
thousands of these very simple units. The Mark II operated by incoming
gas flow lifted a weighted bellows unit. This unite fell under gravity,
which forced breathing gases into the patient's lungs. This was a
brilliant unit, which initiated the use of positive pressure ventilation
techniques in European anesthetic practices.
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