Intensive Care Ventilator Problems

As the ECRI report explains, inappropriate patient ventilation can cause lung injury in intensive care patients, possibly proving fatal in some cases. While ventilators include modes and features designed to address this problem, ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) continues to be a problem. One contributing factor is that complex ventilator functionality included in some devices can be difficult for some clinicians to understand. In addition, there is a lack of standards among manufacturers regarding ventilator terminology, which can exacerbate confusion among clinical staff.

There have been a considerable number of serious recalls related to ventilators, including the Class I recall of the 248 Hamilton Medical AG ventilators, circuit board glitches related to a Covidien device, and nonfunctioning buttons on a GE ventilator. 

As we explain in a separate feature, infusion pumps have been one of the most recall-plagued medical devices in the past decade. From 2005 through 2009 alone, FDA received roughly 56,000 reports of adverse events linked to infusion pumps. In those four years, medical device companies recalled 87 infusion pumps in the United States for safety reasons.

More Top Medical Device Dangers to Avoid in 2016>>