Full Abstract

Helping Patients Breathe 

Covid-19 kills in several ways – oxygen starvation, invasion and impairment of internal organs, blood and circulation issues.  But at least we can help patients breathe more easily.

Enhancing lung drainage can support oxygenation and help during all stages of Covid-19 inflammation, as well as other forms of pulmonary impairment.

In petroleum engineering and hydrogeology, we know how effective gravity drainage is: dense liquid phases go downward; light gaseous phases go upward.  An intubated patient lying on their back, head-up, cannot benefit from gravity; drainage is restricted, and they are weak and cannot cough.    The first recommendation for congestion onset is to recline patients head-down and slightly tilted.  Just like gravity drainage in the oil field.  This is not a new idea. It’s also how we clear their lungs when we try to save a drowning person.  

Also in petroleum engineering, we know that vibrations help dislodge particles and promote fluid flow in several ways.  Higher frequency vibrations can loosen smaller particles, low frequency vibrations can trigger “squirt flow”, as the geophysicists call it.  We know that back-thumping by a trained physiotherapist helps CF patients drain their lungs.  Also, the literature is clear about lung mucous: it is a shear-thinning liquid.   This means that if we can excite some local flow through vibrations in the right frequency and amplitude range, the viscosity drops, making drainage easier.  All good.  Removal of detritus and fluids helps them breathe.

My colleagues and I are designing a special multi-frequency device for dorsal application to assist in mobilizing the detritus and mucous, providing better oxygenation outcomes.  My Waterloo colleagues are Giovanni Cascante in CEE, Alfred Yu in ECE, Ed Ginzel, a retired geophysicist, and Bijan Mahbaz, a Research Associate in EES.  

I will describe the physical principles involved in our approach and explain why we need such a system.