Evaluation of a Pneumatic Vest to Treat Symptoms of ARDS Caused by COVID-19

Critical care patients who experience acute respiratory distress syndrome are commonly placed on mechanical ventilators to improve oxygen delivery and overall gas exchange of the pulmonary system. With the pulmonary inflammation accompanying acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), patients experience significant alterations in ventilation–perfusion (V/Q) ratios resulting in lower blood oxygenation. In severe cases, patients are typically rotated into a prone position to facilitate improved blood flow to portions of the lung that were not previously participating in the gas exchange process. However, proning a patient increases the risk of complications, requires up to seven hospital staff members to carry out, and does not guarantee an improvement in the patient's condition. The low-cost V/Q vest presented here was designed to reproduce the effects of proning while also requiring less hospital staff than the proning process. Additionally, the V/Q Vest helps hospital staff predict whether patients would respond well to a proning treatment. A pilot study was conducted on nine patients with ARDS from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The average increase in oxygenation with the V/Q Vest treatment for all patients was 19.7±38.1%. Six of the nine patients responded positively to the V/Q Vest treatment, exhibiting increased oxygenation. The V/Q Vest also helped hospital staff predict that three of the five patients that were proned would experience an increase in oxygenation. An increase in oxygenation resulting from V/Q Vest treatment exceeded that of the proning treatment in two of these five proned patients.