Culmer, P, Davis Birch, W, Waters, I et al. (19 more authors) (2021) The LeVe CPAP System for Oxygen-Efficient CPAP Respiratory Support: Development and Pilot Evaluation. Frontiers in Medical Technology, 3. 715969. ISSN 2673-3129
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has placed a significant demand on healthcare providers (HCPs) to provide respiratory support for patients with moderate to severe symptoms. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) non-invasive ventilation can help patients with moderate symptoms to avoid the need for invasive ventilation in intensive care. However, existing CPAP systems can be complex (and thus expensive) or require high levels of oxygen, limiting their use in resource-stretched environments.
Technical Development + Testing: The LeVe (“Light”) CPAP system was developed using principles of frugal innovation to produce a solution of low complexity and high resource efficiency. The LeVe system exploits the air flow dynamics of electric fan blowers which are inherently suited to delivery of positive pressure at appropriate flow rates for CPAP. Laboratory evaluation demonstrated that performance of the LeVe system was equivalent to other commercially available systems used to deliver CPAP, achieving a 10 cm H2O target pressure within 2.4% RMS error and 50–70% FiO2 dependent with 10 L/min oxygen from a commercial concentrator.
Pilot Evaluation: The LeVe CPAP system was tested to evaluate safety and acceptability in a group of ten healthy volunteers at Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. The study demonstrated that the system can be used safely without inducing hypoxia or hypercapnia and that its use was well-tolerated by users, with no adverse events reported.
Conclusions: To provide respiratory support for the high patient numbers associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers require resource efficient solutions. We have shown that this can be achieved through frugal engineering of a CPAP ventilation system, in a system which is safe for use and well-tolerated in healthy volunteers. This approach may also benefit other respiratory conditions which often go unaddressed in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) for want of context-appropriate technology designed for the limited oxygen resources available.
Metadata
Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Culmer, Davis Birch, Waters, Keeling, Osnes, Jones, de Boer, Hetherington, Ashton, Latham, Beacon, Royston, Miller, Littlejohns, Parmar, Lawton, Murdoch, Brettle, Musasizi, Nampiina, Namulema and Kapur. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | CPAP, frugal innovation, respiratory support, medical devices, COVID-19 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Aug 2021 09:54 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:45 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media |
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2021.715969 |