BILVIP: PROTOTYPE LUNG VENTILATOR TO TREAT TWO PATIENTS WITHOUT RISK OF CROSS-CONTAMINATION.

State of the art:The recent CO-VID-19 pandemic that has been devastating the world had its first cases detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China (HUANG et al., 2020).The causative virus, called SARS--CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2), quickly spread throughout the country and then around the world, with the number of cases increasing 13-fold in two weeks (GORBALENYA et al., 2020).This increase in the number of cases led the WHO (World Health Organization) to declare a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 (BRAZIL, 2020).Objectives: Design, development, and testing of a versatile mechanical ventilator capable of ventilating two patients simultaneously without the risk of gas mixing and enabling the monitoring of independent parameters (i.e., tidal volume, FiO2, respiratory rate, inspiratory pressure, and PEEP) for the treatment of patients with respiratory diseases.Methods: The methodology used to design the ventilator was based on systems engineering and, therefore, guided by the various complex requirements and functional challenges demanded by medicine in order to achieve a non-traditional design.Thus, the BILVIP (BI-Lung Ventilator with Independent Parameters) ventilator was conceived as a single piece of equipment, but with a versatile design that includes portability and two independent systems with the following elements: 12V electric motor, pulley and belt assembly, crank-crankcase, connecting rod-piston plate assembly, bellows assembly-bellows with inspired volume regulator and air flow regulator, intake valve with oxygen blender, inspiratory pressure adjustment valve (VAP), one-way valve with PEEP (VUP), IRPM counter, HME filters, and connections necessary for a complete breathing circuit.Results: During laboratory tests, the ventilator prototype was able to supply two Drger test lungs with a resistance of 20 mbar/L/s and a complian-ce of 25 mL/mbar simultaneously with independent ventilation parameters and, due to its new design, avoiding any risk of cross-contamination.Conclusions: Although the scientific community does not recommend the use of a single device to ventilate more than one patient, this consensus is naturally still based on the technology and design of traditional ventilators available to date.The BILVIP was designed to try to break this paradigm and overcome the main flaws of the co-ventilation method pointed out in the literature.Thus, the prototype model developed and presented in this article demonstrated, through a new design, that it is possible to ventilate two distinct lungs without the risk of gas mixing and with independent parameter monitoring, thus respecting the individuality of each patient.