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Ventilators, vaporizers, and gas delivery are digitally controlled and integrated data management provide real time patient and system information as well as data exchange.

These create a easily visible feedback loop for increased patient safety.

The ventilator is able to distinguish between mechanical and spontaneous breathing.

Were deeply proud of GE employees around the world rising to the challenge.

Theyre an important tool for doctors and nurses working to help the sickest patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

And right now, hospitals around the world need more of them.

But in the meantime, doctors are turning to other potentially available options that may be used during this public health emergency anesthesia machines are one of the tools that may be considered by clinicians.

In alignment with recently issued guidance from the U.S.

Food Drug Administration (FDA), GE Healthcare has provided information to customers on the use of anesthesia machines for patients needing mechanical ventilation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The use of these systems to ventilate patients for days or weeks was not validated or cleared by the FDA and is considered off-label use.

Clinicians should use traditional ventilators whenever possible.

Thats why GE Healthcare, in communication with the FDA and regulatory agencies worldwide, developed information that can be shared with clinicians regarding the off-label use of anesthesia machines for intensive care unit (ICU) ventilation.

The FDA also shared: Wherever possible, health care facilities should use cleared or approved conventionalstandard full-featured ventilators when necessary to support patients with respiratory failure.

Its an atypical use for the machines, but these are atypical times and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation says that using anesthesia machines for their ventilating capabilities certainly should be considered as a life-saving intervention.

For one thing, ventilators employ a one-way system passing air and gas into a patients lungs only once whereas patients hooked up to an anesthesia machine rebreathe some of the air and gases delivered by the device.

For example, anesthesia machines, unlike ICU ventilators, are designed to be turned off and on and should be fully tested at least once a day to maintain proper calibration.

GE Healthcare recommends continuing this daily checking process, which means a patient would need to be disconnected and manually ventilated during that time.

The canister, which doesnt exist on a ventilator, needs to be changed regularly.

A clinician may also need to increase the flow of gas on an anesthesia machine, compared with the flow on a ventilator, so that the patient isnt rebreathing the carbon dioxide, Nolan explains.

Nolan estimates that the average medium to large hospital in the U.S.

That works out to a lot of anesthesia machines that can be freed up for doctors and nurses doing the urgent work of treating COVID-19 patients.

Aisys Anesthesia Machine User Manual