Blackstone HS-700B

The compressor decides where this intensive care ventilator can go. Medical air is piped into intensive care and theatres, and often nowhere else, so a machine with its own compressor can be used in a recovery bay, a side room, or a hospital without an air manifold, running on an oxygen cylinder alone. For a department buying one ventilator to move around rather than several fixed in place, that feature makes it practical.

The mode list now supports more, too. SIMV delivers mandatory breaths around a patient's own effort rather than through it; spontaneous mode allows breathing with support pressure applied; and sigh delivers the occasional larger breath that reopens a closing lung. Together, these cover a patient moving from full ventilation toward independent breathing, which the HS-500 does not. Pressure support remains absent, though, and that mode offloads the work of drawing each breath through a circuit, so the last stage of weaning is still not directly provided.

The PEEP ceiling is where the machine stops. A patient with stiff lungs from pneumonia, aspiration or acute respiratory distress needs end-expiratory pressure above what this delivers, and no amount of mode flexibility substitutes for it. This is an intensive care ventilator for lungs that are essentially working, supporting a patient who cannot breathe adequately rather than one whose lungs have failed.

Medigear.uk sets the alarm settings, peak pressure limit, and trigger sensitivity before this intensive care ventilator reaches a unit.

Oxygen Concentration Published

Twenty-one to 100 per cent is stated here and nowhere else on the HS-500 sheet, and no other ventilator is set to it.

Air Made On Board

A built-in compressor removes the need for piped medical air, so the ventilator works in areas where only oxygen is available.

Synchronised Mandatory Breaths

SIMV times a mandatory breath around the patient's own effort, avoiding the stacking that unsynchronised IMV can produce.

A Rate Range at Last

One to 99 per minute is printed, where the HS-500 publishes no rate figure at all, so paediatric and adult suitability can be judged.

Inspiratory Ratio Stated

Four to one through one to four is a published band rather than an unknown, even though it stops short of the anaesthesia machines.

Spontaneous Mode and Sigh

Spontaneous breathing with pressure applied, plus periodic larger breaths, supports a patient moving back toward breathing alone.

A Screen Worth Reading

Ten point four inches of LCD replaces an unsized LED readout, which changes how much can be shown and how far away it is legible.

Wider Volume Band

Fifty through 1500 ml extends 300 ml beyond the HS-500 at the upper end, comfortably covering larger adults.

Screen of 10.4 inches

LCD, replacing the LED on the HS-500.

Eight Breathing Modes

IPPV, SIPPV, IMV, SIMV, spontaneous, PEEP, manual and sigh.

Oxygen 21 to 100 Per Cent

Room air through to pure oxygen.

Built-In Air Compressor

Removing the need for piped medical air.

Tidal Volume 50 to 1500 ml

Up to 300 beyond the HS-500 at the top.

Respiratory Rate 1 to 99 bpm

Published here and not on the HS-500.

Inspiratory Ratio 4:1 to 1:4

Narrower than the anaesthesia machines provide.

PEEP of 0.1 to 1.0 kPa

Roughly 1 through 10 cmH2O, as on the HS-500.

No Pressure Support Listed

The mode weaning ordinarily relies upon is absent.

No Alarms Described

Absent from the specification, as on the HS-500.

As an upgrade from the HS-500, this intensive care ventilator delivers on almost every count. Oxygen concentration ranges from 21 to 100 per cent, the mode list doubles, respiratory rate and inspiratory ratio both appear, the screen becomes a proper display, and a built-in compressor removes dependence on piped medical air that limits where a ventilator can work. Two things have not moved. PEEP still tops out around 10 centimetres of water, which keeps a patient with stiff lungs outside what the machine can manage, whatever the Adv designation suggests. And no alarm specification appears on this sheet any more than on the last one, though disconnection and pressure alarms are precisely what permit a ventilated patient to be left in a nurse's care. Medigear.uk obtains the alarm set, peak pressure limit, and trigger sensitivity before quoting this intensive care ventilator.