[Variability of ventilation parameters of home ventilation equipment]

The performance of pressure- and volume controlled ventilators used for invasive and non-invasive ventilation in the home were tested on a patient lung model. In order to determine the influence of tidal volume preset, breathing rate, resistance, compliance and leakage to the variability of delivered tidal volume and peak airway pressure a factorial plan with adapted analysis of variance was used. The influence of tidal volume preset, compliance and leakage to the delivered tidal volume is significant. The peak airway pressure depends hardly on the influence factors. All tested ventilators meet the legal demands. But in some clinical situations there are considerable deviations of the breathing parameters depending on the brand. In conclusion ventilators of different brands are not interchangeable.