From the May 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Covidien staked its claim in the neonatal ventilation market with its Puritan Bennett 980 ventilator, including a neonatal platform, in the U.S. in 2014. The neonatal ventilator comes with infant-specific applications such as Leak Sync software, which automatically detects and compensates for fluctuating leak sizes, as well as presets that track the most relevant parameters in a particular instance. There is also the ability to use non-invasive synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation, which may help reduce the need to use invasive approaches to ventilation with endotracheal tubes, says Gary Milne, director of clinical marketing for respiratory solutions with Covidien.

The Puritan Bennett 980 ventilator is another machine aimed at the youngest patient. It has safety features that include a 1 percent resolution change in an automated increase in oxygen, which automatically turns off so the neonate is not exposed to elevated levels beyond need, Milne says. Volume-based delivery, which needs to be accurate on small babies, is within 10 percent of what is set within one standard deviation and can deliver down to 2-millimeter tidal volumes. In pressure-based approaches, the milligrams per kilogram can now be monitored both on inspired and expired volumes, which allows for assessment of lung protective volumes in pressure-based modes.


Hamilton Medical showed its T1 full-featured transport ventilator and its C1 ventilator, which will offer neonatal applications, at last year’s American Association for Respiratory Care Congress. Maquet promoted its Servo-U neonatal-through-adult ventilator and the Servo-N, a dedicated infant platform at the same meeting. The companies’ machines are currently pending FDA clearance, according to Leibold, who wrote about the conference for MD Buyline.

GE Healthcare has added some unique features to its CARESCAPE R860 ventilator, a neonatal-to-adult model that is pending FDA clearance and is available in Europe only as of today. One such feature, called Metabolics, measures inhaled and exhaled gases, which the physician can use to assess a patient’s nutritional status, says Paul Hunsicker, clinical manager for GE Healthcare Life Care Solutions.

“No one tells you to carbo load before surgery,” Hunsicker says. “Fifty percent of patients have some form of severe to moderate malnutrition. Metabolics allows us to measure caloric requirements of patients so they can be fed appropriately. This can address issues with weaning and healing in some patients.”

May 2015 Magazine

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