Pulsed Dose Oxygen Delivery During Mechanical Ventilation: Impact on Oxygenation.

Adequate oxygenation is one of the primary goals of mechanical ventilation. Maintenance of adequate oxygenation and prevention of hypoxemia are the primary goals for the battlefield casualty, but military operations have unique concerns. In military operations, oxygen is a limited resource. A portable oxygen concentrator has the advantage of operating solely from electrical power and theoretically is a never-exhausting supply of oxygen. Our previous bench work demonstrated that the pulsed dose setting of the concentrator can be used in concert with the ventilator to maximize oxygen delivery. We evaluated this ventilator/concentrator system with closed loop control of oxygen output in a porcine model.