Northern Ireland

Belfast team to undertake one of world's biggest trials into respiratory failure

The trial will test the effectiveness of new technology aimed at improving survival rates of patients affected by respiratory failure
The trial will test the effectiveness of new technology aimed at improving survival rates of patients affected by respiratory failure The trial will test the effectiveness of new technology aimed at improving survival rates of patients affected by respiratory failure

A TEAM from Queen's University and the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is to undertake one of the world's biggest trials aimed at improving survival rates of people affected by respiratory failure.

The £2.1m project will involve 1,120 critically ill patients in 40 hospitals across the UK over the next four years.

The trial will test the effectiveness of new technology designed to alleviate the pressure put on the lungs by mechanical ventilation. There are currently deaths in 40 per cent of cases where patients are treated by the machines each year.

Professor Danny McAuley from Queen’s said: "These new devices have been designed to help remove carbon dioxide from the patient’s blood - in a process quite similar to kidney dialysis.

"By temporarily removing this function from the lungs, it means lungs do not have to work quite as hard, so a gentler ventilation should be sufficient."