In response to Covid-19 crisis, 310 Masi ventilators were produced and validated in Lima, Peru, according to applicable standards. Four of them, were transported to Puno, in order to strengthen ICU Services there, but this set a major challenge to Masi team as effects of altitude on ventilators were unknown. Once there, ventilators were acclimated and calibrated. Volume tidal, I:E ratio, respiratory frequency and PEEP were tested, all of them presenting errors under 15%, except for tidal volume, for which a 25% negative correction was applied. After the installation of a new version of Masi software, parameters were tested again, all of them presenting results with errors below 15%, which allowed the Masi team to take them to ICU services for use.
Clinical Relevance-Masi Peruvian Ventilators are able to perform according to their specifications at extremely high altitude, after the adequate calibration. These devices are an alternative to treat COVID-19 patients in the middle of the crisis.
Three hundred and ten rapid-manufactured mechanical ventilators, named Masi, were produced and validated in Peru, according to applicable standards. From these, a sample of 30 was taken and two ventilation parameters, tidal volume and peak inspiratory pressure, were statically analyzed using control charts and histograms. Results show that several points were outside estimated limits for Shewhart means and ranges charts, which could possibly be due to the quantity of equipment used for data recollection and the fact that the Masi team had over 20 engineers. Nevertheless, Masi ventilators met the tolerance required by their user´s manual and MHRA standard and Peruvian DIGEMID for every parameter.Clinical Relevance-This article shows the performance in the validation stage of the peruvian mechanical ventilator MASI built as an emergency response for the COVID-19 crisis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.