Compressor/bottle settings

#1 06-14-2005, 05:02 PM

Our son (Samuel) has used the same ultrasonic humidifer system for almost all of his trached time (going on 3 years). But alas, the ultra-neb broke last night. We have a backup system seems to be more commonly used: an air compressor and water bottle, attached to the usual blue mist tubing going to a trach mask. We add oxygen into the tubing just after the drainage bag.

I have no experience with this other system (outside of the hospital, where it was attached to the O2 prt in the room). We got some vague input from an RT, who said we could adjust the compressor rate (but keep it very high, at 50psi?), and the opening on the water bottle (used to control oxygen when attached to oxygen port in the hospital) that lets in outside air. I was wondering what you all have found as the best settings for delivering humidified air to a trached kid (enough to keep him moist but not soaked, and the flow rate not too high to dilute his oxygen feed).

thanks - Sam's dad

cariaad · #2 06-14-2005, 07:04 PM

When we used this setup, we were told to NEVER run it at 50 psi (the highest it would go). We usually ran it around 20 I believe. The guage on top of the water bottle seemed to make a big difference not only in noise level but in determining if she would get soaked or just stay moist. As I recall it had markings at one time but they rubbed off quickly. We had it barely open. We added O2 in closer to the trach mask when it was required, about 8 inches from it. Always remember to keep the drain bag lower than the level of the child's trach. Have you ever tried just using a HME? They make them with an O2 port i think. Will your insurance repair or replace the ultrasonic setup? Good luck. Deb

twintotwin · #3 06-15-2005, 08:24 PM

My twins are both on 25% O2 ...we use the Easy Air compressor from Precision. The gauge goes up to 100 on ours. We have it set at 50psi and the opening on the neb top is at 40%. We can bump the neb top up to allow more oxygen in as needed.
We bleed in O2 from the concentrator approx. 5 lengths from the trach mask. The drainage bag is 5 more lengths from the O2 bleed-in adaptor.
It's a very crappy system.
If you can get away with using an HME, we use the Aqua + from Hudson. We only use the HME for a few hours during the day.

Kerry