System for automatically weaning a patient from a ventilator, and method thereof

1. A method for automatically weaning a patient from a ventilator, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) measuring the patient's spontaneous breathing rate;

(b) measuring the patient's minute volume;

(c) comparing the patient's spontaneous breathing rate to a predetermined range of breathing rates;

(d) comparing the patient's minute volume to a predetermined tidal volume; and

(e) weaning the patient from the ventilator in response to the comparisons in steps (c) and (d).

2. The method for automatically weaning a patient from the ventilator of claim 1 , the method further comprising the step of:

(f) decreasing the patient's pressure support level if:

(i) the patient's spontaneous breathing rate falls within the predetermined range of breathing rates, and,

(ii) the patient's minute volume exceeds the predetermined minute volume.

3. The method for automatically weaning a patient from the ventilator of claim 1 , the method further comprising the step of:

(f) increasing the patient's support level if:

(i) the patient's spontaneous breathing rate falls outside the predetermined range of breathing rate; and

(ii) the patient's minute volume is exceeded by the predetermined minute volume.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising adjusting the amount of pressure support between zero and PEEP.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the patient's pressure support level is decreased by a rate between 0.01% and 0.1%.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising setting a low pressure alarm limit.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein measuring the patient's spontaneous breath rate further comprises calculating an average breath rate and a current breath rate from patient's spontaneous breath rate to obtain the patient's breath rate.

8. A ventilator system for automatically weaning a patient from a ventilator, comprising:

a spontaneous breathing rate monitor;

a minute volume flow meter; and

a data processing unit in electrical communication with said breathing rate monitor, and said flow meter, wherein, said data processing unit processes data from said breath rate monitor and said minute flow monitor, assesses the ventilation requirements of the patient from said processed data, and weans the patient from the ventilator according to the assessed ventilation requirements.

9. The ventilator system of claim 8 further comprising a pneumatic system comprising a flexible airway, a source of pressurized gas, a rigid chamber, a flexible chamber and a Venturi valve.

10. The ventilator system of claim 9 further comprising a high speed pneumatically driven, electronically controlled proportional valve and dual Venturi systems.

11. The ventilator system of claim 8 further comprises a touch screen in electrical communication with a display controller processor.

12. The ventilator system of claim 8 wherein said data processing unit comprises a real time data processor in electrical communication with a ventilatory unit processor and an airway processor.

13. A method for automatically weaning a patient from a ventilator, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining the patient's spontaneous breathing rate;

(b) measuring the patient minute volume;

(c) comparing the patient's breath rate to the predetermined breath rate range;

(d) comparing the patient's minute volume to the predetermined minute volume;

(e) assessing from steps (a)–(d) the ventilation requirements of the patient; and

(f) weaning the patient from the ventilator according to the assessed ventilation requirements.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising calculating an average breath rate and a current breath rate to obtain the patient's breath rate.