A Simplified Adult Expiratory Support Device: First Clinical Cases in a Low-Resource Setting

In low and middle-income countries, mechanical ventilators or commercially available devices used to offer continuous positive airway pressure are not readily affordable and available. In Ghana, nearly 10% of critically ill patients presenting to the emergency department require ventilator support.

We designed, built, and tested a simple expiratory positive airway pressure (EPAP) device to provide adult respiratory support in low resource environments with or without supplemental oxygen and without the need for electricity.

Laboratory tests demonstrated that the device is capable of delivering EPAP at levels expected to provide significant assistance to some patients. We present the first 2 cases where the use of this simple EPAP device provided critical respiratory support during weaning of patients from mechanical ventilation.

A low-cost 3-dimensional printable adult respiratory support device could provide substantial benefit to patients suffering from respiratory distress through the delivery of appropriate levels of EPAP in a low-resource setting with limited infrastructure. Further clinical validation is needed for broader application in low-resource settings.