What Are The Uses Of an Ambu Bag?

by Hospital Product Directory CEO

A bag valve mask (BVM), occasionally identified by the branded name Ambu bag or broadly as a manual resuscitator or "self-inflating bag", is a hand-held machine usually used to deliver positive pressure ventilation to patients who are not breathing or not breathing sufficiently. The machine supplied by Ambu Bag Suppliers is a compulsory part of revival kits for trained experts in out-of-hospital settings (such as ambulance crews) and is also frequently used in hospitals as part of normal equipment found on a crash cart, in emergency rooms, or other critical care locations. Physical resuscitators are also used within the hospital for provisional ventilation of patients in need of mechanical ventilators when the mechanical ventilator desires to be inspected for likely malfunction or when ventilator-dependent patients are transferred within the hospital. Two main kinds of manual resuscitators exist; one form is self-filling with air, although added oxygen (O2) can be complemented but is not essential for the machine to function. The other main kind of manual resuscitator (flow-inflation) is deeply used in non-emergency applications in the operating room to aerate patients during anesthesia induction and retrieval.

Use of physical resuscitators to ventilate a patient is often called "bagging" the patient and is frequently essential in medical emergencies when the patient's inhalation is inadequate (respiratory failure) or has stopped entirely (respiratory arrest). The use of the manual resuscitator force-feeds air or oxygen into the lungs to expand them under pressure, thus establishing a means to physically deliver positive-pressure ventilation. It is used by specialized rescuers in predilection to mouth-to-mouth ventilation, either straight or through an assistant such as a pocket mask.

Components of an Ambu Bag

Mask

The Ambu bag comprises a stretchy air cavity (the "bag", coarsely a foot in length), committed to a face mask via a secure valve. When the face mask is correctly applied and the "bag" is embraced, the device forces air over into the patient's lungs; when the bag is unconfined, it self-expands from its other finish, drawing in either ambient air or a low-pressure oxygen stream supplied by a controlled cylinder, while also permitting the patient's lungs to deflate to the ambient setting (not the bag) past the one-way valve.

Bag and valve groupings can also be devoted to an alternative airway assistant, instead of to the mask. For instance, it can be devoted to an endotracheal tube or laryngeal mask airway.

Bag and Valve

An Ambu bag can be used without being attached to an oxygen cistern to deliver "room air" (21% oxygen) to the patient. Though manual resuscitator machines also can be linked to a separate bag tank, which can be filled with pure oxygen from a trodden oxygen source, thus snowballing the amount of oxygen transported to the patient to nearly 100%.

How to use an Ambu bag?

Manual resuscitators reason the gas inside the expandable bag portion to be force-fed to the patient via a one-way regulator when compressed by the rescuer; the gas is then preferably transported through a mask and into the patient's trachea, bronchus, and into lungs. To be operative, an Ambu bag must transport between 500 and 600 milliliters of air to a standard male adult patient's lungs, but if additional oxygen is provided 400 ml may still be satisfactory. Enfolding the bag once every 5 to 6 seconds for an adult or once every 3 seconds for a baby or child provides a satisfactory breathing rate (10–12 respirations per minute in an adult and 20 per minute in a youngster or infant).

Expert rescuers are taught to safeguard that the mask portion of the Ambu bag Supplied by Ambu Bag Suppliers is appropriately closed around the patient's face (that is, to safeguard proper "mask seal"); otherwise, pressure desired to force-inflate the lungs is discharged to the environment. This is problematic when a single rescuer tries to uphold a face mask closure with one hand while enfolding the bag with the other. So, the shared protocol uses two rescuers: one rescuer grips the mask to the patient's face with both hands and focuses completely on upholding a leak-proof mask seal, while the other rescuer squashes the bag and efforts on breath (or tidal capacity) and timing.

An endotracheal tube (ET) can be introduced by an advanced consultant and can replace the mask portion of the manual resuscitator. This delivers more sheltered air passage between the resuscitator and the patient since the ET tube is closed with an expandable cuff within the trachea (or windpipe), so any vomiting is less likely to enter the lungs, and so that required increased pressure can only go into the lungs and not unintentionally go to the. The ET tube also upholds an open and safe airway at all times, even during CPR compressions; in contrast to when a manual resuscitator is used with a mask when a face mask closure can be problematic to maintain during compressions.