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Review
. 2020 Jul;125(1):e181-e183.
doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2020.04.061. Epub 2020 Apr 27.

Implementing shared ventilation must be scientific and ethical, or it risks harm

Daniel C Cook  1
Affiliations
Review

Implementing shared ventilation must be scientific and ethical, or it risks harm

Daniel C Cook. Br J Anaesth. 2020 Jul.
No abstract available

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; co-ventilation; critical care; medical ethics; resource allocation; shared ventilation; ventilator.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Comparing survival differences with shared or standard ventilation by their hypothetical mortality rates. The numbers within each cell represent the proportional change in survival with shared ventilation for a population of patients comparing the shown mortality rates. Four key assumptions are made in this analysis: (i) the shared ventilation strategy doubles treatment capacity (a condition that is unlikely to be met in practice), (ii) all patients receive either shared ventilation or standard ventilation, (iii) all patients not receiving ventilator treatment will die, and (iv) the mortality rate of shared ventilation will not be less than standard ventilation.
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