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Neonatal/pediatric intensive care ventilators designed to deliver gas to the lungs of newborns and infants by periodically applying and releasing an external negative-pressure to the chest cavity. Some negative pressure ventilators consist of a tight-chamber (e.g., tank or iron lung) where the patient is enclosed from the neck down; then a vacuum pump creates a negative pressure around the body causing air to be sucked into the lungs. Others consist of a plastic or metallic shell (breast-plate or cuirass) externally attached to the infant chest and a vacuum pump that creates a negative pressure within the breastplate. Cuirass negative-pressure ventilators that can control both inspiration and expiration either by providing a negative pressure during the inspiratory phase and a positive pressure during expiration or by intermittent swings of negative pressure (negative-pressure oscillatory ventilators) are also available. Neonatal/pediatric negative-pressure ventilators typically operate at normal breathing rates, but the oscillatory type can reach respiratory rates up to 900 cycles/minute.
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