After the emergence of the epidemic, household oxygen concentrators began to enter the field of vision of ordinary people, but many people confuse oxygen concentrators and ventilators, although both are used to solve breathing problems, but ventilators and oxygen concentrators are essentially two medical devices with different uses.
To understand the difference between home oxygen concentrators and ventilators, we must first know the principle and function of the two.
Normally, breathing is through the action of exhaling and inhaling, so that our alveoli and airway opening produce an active negative pressure difference to meet the needs of body ventilation. Some people may cause airway obstruction or weakened alveolar tone due to obesity, hypertrophy and thick pharynx, abnormal thyroid function, etc., resulting in breathing disorders, snoring, sleep apnea and other phenomena.
The role of the ventilator is to provide air flow like an electric fan, and direct a constant and gentle airflow into the body’s airways through the mask, helping or replacing these people with breathing disorders to complete breathing and meet physiological ventilation needs.
Oxygen
When the blood oxygen saturation is low, people will have hypoxia, mainly manifested as dizziness, chest tightness, memory loss and loss of appetite, etc., and long-term hypoxia will lead to insomnia, premature aging, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, etc., and oxygen inhalation through oxygen generator is an important means to solve the problem of hypoxia.
At present, the most common household oxygen generator on the market is the molecular sieve oxygen generator, which uses the PSA method (pressure swing adsorption) to extract oxygen directly from the air, in short, it is to separate the oxygen in the air through the molecular sieve, and then deliver it to the human respiratory tract.
Since the oxygen produced by the household oxygen generator comes from air, there is no need for oxygen storage equipment and a fixed oxygen supply source. For people who need long-term oxygen, the cost performance will be higher and more convenient than bottled oxygen or hospital oxygen. The standard oxygen concentration is 90%±3%, which is an important reference for us to choose a household oxygen generator.
In summary, we can simply summarize the difference between ventilators and oxygen generators as: ventilators are used to solve ventilation problems, suitable for people who breathe poorly or cannot breathe on their own, while oxygen concentrators are used to solve the problem of lack of oxygen, mainly suitable for people with low blood oxygen saturation.
In addition, people with COPD, emphysema, sleep apnea, etc., may need a ventilator and oxygen concentrator at the same time.