Iron lung - Wikipedia
An iron lung, also known as a tank ventilator or Drinker tank, is a type of negative pressure ventilator (NPV); a mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body, and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space, to stimulate breathing.[1][2][3][4] It assists breathing when muscle control is lost, or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability.[1] Need for this treatment may result from diseases including polio and botulism and certain poisons (for example, barbiturates, tubocurarine).
The use of iron lungs is largely obsolete in modern medicine, as more modern breathing therapies have been developed,[5] and due to the eradication of polio in most of the world.[6] However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revived some interest in the device as a cheap, readily-producible substitute for positive-pressure ventilators, which were feared to be outnumbered by potential victims temporarily needing artificially assisted respiration.[7][8][9][10]
The iron lung is typically a large horizontal cylinder, in which a person is laid, with their head protruding from a hole in the end of the cylinder, so that their head (particularly nose and mouth) is outside the cylinder, exposed to ambient air, and the rest of their body sealed inside the cylinder, where air pressure is continuously cycled up and down, to stimulate breathing.[1][2][3][11][12]
