MAQUET Critical Care, Solana, Sweden, recently announced the launch of its Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist (NAVA) for noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in adult patients at the 23rd annual congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine in Barcelona, Spain. Last week, MAQUET announced the launch of NAVA for NIV in neonatal patients.

In conventional NIV, patient-ventilator asynchrony is common. Studies suggest that leaks may play a major role in generating patient-ventilator asynchrony and discomfort. NAVA provides synchronized assist while breath triggering and cycle-off are not affected by leakage. According to MAQUET, every patient effort is assessed and responded to equally effectively regardless of patient interface used resulting in reduced work of breathing and increased patient comfort.

The NAVA approach to mechanical ventilation is based on the patient’s neural respiratory output. Signals from the respiratory control in the brain are transmitted through the phrenic nerve to the diaphragm. A catheter senses the electrical activity and feeds it to the ventilator. The ventilator responds by providing the requested level of support to the patient. According to the company, as the ventilator and diaphragm work with the same signal, the coupling between the two is virtually instantaneous.

Source: MAQUET Critical Care