A MULTI FREQUENCY JET VENTILATOR FOR USE UNDER BATTLEFIELD CONDITIONS DEVELOPMENT

THE PROPOSED EFFORT FOCUSES UPON THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN ULTRA HIGH FREQUENCY JET VENTILATOR THAT COULD BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER PROCEDURES FOR THE TREATMENT OF INJURIES SUSTAINED UNDER BOTH COMBAT AND NONCOMBAT CONDITIONS. THE ULTRA HIGH FREQUENCY JET VENTILATOR IS PORTABLE, I.E. COMPACT, LIGHTWEIGHT AND HAS LOW POWER CONSUMPTION, AND COULD BE OPERATED AND MAINTAINED BY INDIVIDUALS WITH MINIMAL TRAINING. IT CAN OPERATE NOT ONLY IN THE ULTRA-FREQUENCY MODE BUT ALSO AT FREQUENCIES IN THE RANGE EMPLOYED BY CONVENTIONAL POSITIVE PRESSURE VENTILATION. THIS PERMITS ONE TO TUNE THE FREQUENCY TO BEST TREAT THE PATIENT. IN THE ULTRA-HIGH FREQUENCY MODE THE VENTILATOR ACHIEVES ITS MAJOR BENEFITS OVER OTHER FORMS OF VENTILATION BY AUGMENTING MASS TRANSPORT, RATHER THAN CONVECTING GASES IN BULK QUANTITIES. IN THE PROPOSED EFFORT LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON PIGS WILL BE CONDUCTED THAT WOULD SIMULATE BATTLEFIELD INJURIES SUCH AS PENETRATING CHEST WOUNDS AND PARALYSIS TO THE THORACIC MUSCLES. COMPARISONS BETWEEN ULTRA-HIGH FREQUENCY AND CONVENTIONAL POSITIVE PRESSURE VENTILATION WOULD BE MADE THEREBY DETERMINING THE EFFICACY OF THE PRESENT FORM OF VENTILATION IN TREATING SUCH TYPES OF INJURIES.