Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
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.

PubMed Disclaimer

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.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Emanuel E.J., Persad G., Upshur R. Fair allocation of scarce medical resources in the time of Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020 doi: 10.1056/NEJMsb2005114. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Branson R.D., Blakeman T.C., Robinson B.R., Johannigman J.A. Use of a single ventilator to support 4 patients: laboratory evaluation of a limited concept. Respir Care. 2012;57:399–403. - PubMed
    1. Paladino L., Silverberg M., Charchaflieh J.G. Increasing ventilator surge capacity in disasters: ventilation of four adult-human-sized sheep on a single ventilator with a modified circuit. Resuscitation. 2008;77:121–126. - PubMed
    1. Menes K., Tintinalli J., Plaster L. How one Las Vegas ED saved hundreds of lives after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Emerg Physicians Monthly. 2017 https://epmonthly.com/article/not-heroes-wear-capes-one-las-vegas-ed-sav... Available from:
    1. U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps . 2020. Optimizing ventilator use during the COVID-19 pandemic.https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/optimizing-ventilator-use-during... Available from: