Why couldn’t polio patients dependent on mechanical ventilation be transferred from iron lungs to less invasive positive pressure ventilators once they were invented?

Question

I hope this is an okay post. It doesn’t directly concern any recent events per se, though a recent event did lead me to think of this question

In: Other

Answer 1

the ventilators today are positive pressure ventilators which means it pushes air down the lungs. the negative pressure in the iron lungs helps decompress the chest and chest muscles. i don’t know if i’d agree that positive pressure ventilators are less invasive. It requires anesthetic and a tube down the trachea.

Modern ventilators make it hard to speak, eat, and do whatever else you need to do with your mouth. The benefit of an iron lung is that you are fully awake, able to communicate, and are able to eat and drink.

iron lungs are actually not invasive and do not have any or have only a little actual contact with the body. the negative pressure mimics breathing. Iron lungs are specifically useful in cases where there has been nerve damage and respiratory failure.

Another issue with modern ventilators is the potential for misplacement. It has to be perfectly aligned right with your airways to work properly. There are also a lot of challenges affording and keeping long-term ventilators sterile.