id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-307549-1g6x5grl	Fullick, James	“Water, water, everywhere”: a challenge to ventilators in the COVID-19 pandemic	2020-05-01		.txt	text/plain	936	56	55	E-mail: james.fullick@nhs.net Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; resource management; ventilator; water trap EditordWith the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), intensive care facilities have been rapidly overwhelmed across the UK and elsewhere. We write from a South Wales district general hospital that has moved patients into our recovery facility as an outreach ICU to discuss some of the challenges and potential solutions of the use of anaesthetic machines in long-term ventilation. One of the main issues we have encountered in ventilating these patients for durations outside the routine scope of anaesthetic machines is water condensation within the 22 mm tubing. A final water trap design was created using an HME filter with the filter material removed and connected in the middle of the expiratory limb of the circuit. A more complex design using a short in-line suction catheter (Fig 1d) was also proposed, however it requires more complex connections that increase the risk of disconnects, turbulent flow, or leaks.	./cache/cord-307549-1g6x5grl.txt	./txt/cord-307549-1g6x5grl.txt