What Is a Ventilator?

A ventilator is a machine that helps people breathe. It's mainly used in hospitals. Ventilators:

 

A ventilator often is used for short periods, such as during surgery when you're under general anesthesia. The term "anesthesia" refers to a loss of feeling and awareness. General anesthesia temporarily puts you to sleep.

 

The medicines used to induce anesthesia can disrupt normal breathing. A ventilator helps make sure that you continue breathing during surgery

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A ventilator also may be used during treatment for a serious lung disease or other condition that affects normal breathing.

 

Some people may need to use ventilators long term or for the rest of their lives. In these cases, the machines can be used outside of the hospital - in long-term care facilities or at home.

 

A ventilator doesn't treat a disease or condition. It's used only for life support.

 

 

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

 

Who Needs a Ventilator?

Ventilators most often are used:

 

During Surgery

 

If you have general anesthesia during surgery, you'll likely be connected to a ventilator. The medicines used to induce anesthesia can disrupt normal breathing. A ventilator helps make sure that you continue breathing during surgery.

 

After surgery, you may not even know you were connected to a ventilator. The only sign may be a slight sore throat for a short time. The sore throat is caused by the tube that connected the ventilator to your airway.

 

Once the anesthesia wears off and you begin breathing on your own, the ventilator will be disconnected. The tube in your throat also will be taken out. This usually happens before you completely wake up from surgery.

 

However, depending on the type of surgery you have, you could stay on a ventilator for a few hours to several days after your surgery. Most people who have anesthesia during surgery only need a ventilator for a short time, though.

 

For Impaired Lung Function

 

You may need a ventilator if a disease, condition, or other factor has impaired your breathing.

 

Although you may be able to breathe on your own, it's very hard work. You may feel short of breath and uncomfortable. A ventilator can help ease the work of breathing. People who can't breathe on their own also use ventilators.

 

Many diseases, conditions, and factors can affect lung function. Examples include:

 

A ventilator helps you breathe until you recover. If you can't recover enough to breathe on your own, you may need a ventilator for the rest of your life.

 

How Does a Ventilator Work?

Ventilators blow air—or air with increased amounts of oxygen—into the airways and then the lungs.

The airways are pipes that carry oxygen-rich air to your lungs and carbon dioxide, a waste gas, out of your lungs. The airways include your:

 

For more information on the airways, see How the Lungs Work.

 

The Breathing Tubes

 

A ventilator blows air into your airways through a breathing tube. One end of the tube is inserted into your windpipe and the other end is attached to the ventilator.

 

The breathing tube serves as an airway by letting air and oxygen from the ventilator into the lungs. The process of placing the tube into your windpipe is called intubation.

 

Usually, the breathing tube is put into your windpipe through your nose or mouth. The tube is then moved down into your throat. A tube placed like this is called an endotracheatube.

 

In an emergency, you're given medicine to make you sleepy and ease the pain of the breathing tube being put in your windpipe. If it's not an emergency, the procedure is done in an operating room using anesthesia. That is, you're given medicines that temporarily put you to sleep and cause a loss of feeling.

 

An endotracheal tube is held in place by tape or with an endotracheal tube holder. This often is a strap that fits around the head.

 

Sometimes the breathing tube is put into the windpipe through a hole in the front of the neck. A surgeon makes the hole using a procedure called tracheotomy. The tube put into the hole is sometimes called a "trach" tube.

 

A tracheotomy is done in an operating room. You'll be under anesthesia, so you won't be awake or feel any pain. Specially made ties, or bands, that go around the neck hold the trach tube in place.

 

Both types of breathing tubes pass through your vocal cords. Thus, while a breathing tube is in your throat, it affects your ability to talk.

 

Endotracheal tubes are mainly used for people who are on ventilators for shorter periods. The advantage of this tube is that it can be placed in an airway without surgery.

 

Trach tubes are used for people who need ventilators for longer periods. For people who are awake, this tube is more comfortable than the endotracheal tube. Under certain conditions, a person who has a trach tube may be able to talk.

 

The Ventilator

 

A ventilator uses pressure to blow air or a mixture of other gases (like oxygen and air) into the lungs. This pressure is known as positive pressure. You usually breathe out the air, but sometimes the ventilator does this for you.

 

A ventilator can be set to "breathe" a set number of times a minute. Sometimes it's set so that you can trigger the machine to blow air into your lungs. But, if you fail to trigger it within a certain amount of time, the machine automatically blows air to keep you breathing.

 

Rarely, a ventilator called a chest shell is used. This type of ventilator works like an iron lung—an early ventilator used by many polio patients in the last century. However, the chest shell isn't as bulky and confining as the iron lung.

 

The chest shell fits snugly to the outside of your chest. A machine creates a vacuum between the shell and the chest wall. This causes your chest to expand, and air is sucked into your lungs. No breathing tube is used with a chest shell.

 

When the vacuum is released, your chest falls back into place and the air in your lungs comes out. This cycle of vacuum and release is set at a normal breathing rate.