[COVID-19: how to transform a noninvasive ventilation device in a critical care ventilator].

COVID-19 pandemic caused not only many deaths around the world but also made evident technical limitations of hospital and intensive care units (ICU). The growing demand of ICU ventilators in a short lapse of time constitutes one of the main community concerns. The main goal of this communication is to give simple solutions to transform a noninvasive ventilator in an invasive one for intubated patients. The proposal can be applied in two well defined strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic: To replace anesthesia workstations, leaving those machines to be used in patients. To apply this option in COVID-19 patients by way of a therapeutic "bridge", waiting for the release of a ventilator in the ICU.
(© 2020 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)