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| Typical Number in Hospital: | Cost Bands: 4 | References: 2 |
Breathing can be assisted by placing the patient in a box with an airtight seal around the neck, leaving only the head outside. If air is pumped in and out of the box to create alternating high and low pressure, the chest will rise and fall ensuring ventilation of the lungs. This is the machine known to the public as the artificial lung or iron lung used in the management of polio. It is rarely used today because intermittent positive pressure ventilation, involving direct internal inflation and deflation of the lungs, is so much more effective and convenient for most requirements.
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