‘BiPAP machines -- better than ventilators’
KANPUR : Bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machines have proven more successful than ventilators when it comes to saving the lives of critical patients afflicted with Covid-19 in Kanpur’s Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital, according to experts.
A BiPAP machine assists breathing by maintaining a positive pressure, thereby increasing oxygen level. It is a table-top device fitted with tubes and a mask. Although it functions like a ventilator, it is non-invasive, easy to use and relatively less expensive. As of now, BiPap machines have saved 30 lives at LLR Hospital, which is the biggest level 3 Covid hospital in Kanpur, the experts added.
The hospital functions under the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Memorial Medical College here.
When 33 patients were shifted to BiPAP machines, 30 of them, including a police officer, survived. On the contrary, only one out of the 28 patients, who were put ventilator, could be saved thus far at the same hospital.
LLR Hospital has 20 BiPAP machines and an equal number of ventilators in the neuro Covid facility, where critical patients are being treated, said the hospital authorities. Dr Apoorva Agarwal, intensive care unit head of LLR Hospital, said it was not short of a miracle. “It is really hard to comprehend when coronavirus patients would become critical. The BiPAP, in such a scenario, is a big relief,” he said.
“It is seen that if symptomatic patients are shifted to BiPAP in early stages, the move reduces the chances of the patient going into acute respiratory distress syndrome by 80%,” he said.
For example, a patient from Hamirpur was brought to the hospital with severe kidney malfunction. Soon, the patient was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome as well. Ventilators were not available for him. As a result, he was moved to a BiPAP machine and he recovered in four days.
Similarly, the condition of the police officer, who tested positive for Covid-19, stabilised with the help of a BiPAP machine when the diagnosis showed that lung infection had grown severely and a ventilator was required.
Experts said the BiPAP machine was useful for the patients who were not unconscious. Unlike the ventilator, the doctors need not insert tubes through nose or mouth, or put in a tube using a cut in the nasal region when a patient is put on a BiPAP machine.
If used early, BiPAP checks the spread of infection in the lungs. Dr Agarwal said there was a greater risk of contracting an infection on ventilator than on BiPAP. In case of a ventilator, doctors put in a long tube through the mouth of the patient and the chances of the tubes getting infected are always high.
“Infection due to other diseases can be controlled with the help of antibiotics, but they don’t help at all in coronavirus patients. We have to ensure that the tubes do not get infected because they go deep and remain in close proximity with the infected region,” he said.
But, when a BiPAP is used, doctors only have to put a mask on the face of patients, minimising the chances of infection.