Masi: A mechanical ventilator based on a manual resuscitator with telemedicine capabilities for patients with ARDS during the COVID-19 crisis

In this article, we introduce a portable and low-cost ventilator that could be rapidly manufactured, to meet the increasing demand of ventilators worldwide produced by COVID-19 pandemic. These ventilators should be rapidly deployable and with functional capabilities to manage COVID-19 patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Our implementation offers robustness, safety and functionality absent in existing solutions to the ventilator shortage (i.e., telemonitoring, easy-to-disinfect, modularity) by maintaining simplicity. The design makes use of a manual resuscitator as the core respiration component activated by a compression mechanism which consist of two electronically controlled paddles. The quality measurements obtained after testing on a calibrated artificial lung demonstrate repeatability and accuracy exceeding human capabilities of manual ventilation. The complete design files are provided in the supplementary materials to facilitate ventilator production even in resource-limited settings. The implementation of this mechanical ventilator could eliminate device rationing or splitting to serve multiple patients on ICUs.

Bupivacaine and saline effects on articular cartilage

Isotonic saline solution causes acute inhibition of 35SO4 incorporation into intact articular cartilage slices in vitro, but there is no evidence of ultrastructural damage to chondrocytes following treatment with bupivacaine or saline solution in vivo. Also, there is recovery of 35SO4 incorporation by 1-3 days following in vivo intraarticular administration of bupivacaine in saline solution to young pigs and adult dogs. There does not appear to be any contraindication to the use of intraarticular bupivacaine based on these findings.