Iron lung

Iron lung exhibit at the Museum of North Texas History in Wichita Falls, Texas

Iron Lung or Negative pressure ventilator. At first an airtight metal tank that encloses all of the body except the head and forces the lungs to inhale and exhale through regulated changes in air pressure. Aside from the modified version, BCV, this equipment is now outmoded by Positive pressure ventilation.

Iron lung may refer to:

Ventilators, Iron lungs, formerly described as respirators

• Tank respirator
• Drinker respirator 1928. Developed by Drinker with Shaw at Harvard School of Public Health using existing technology
• Emerson iron lung 1931. Improved and less expensive than Drinker respirator
• Both Portable Cabinet Respirator 1937. Offered free of charge to Commonwealth hospitals by William Morris, Lord Nuffield. The Both-Nuffield iron lung
• Biphasic Cuirass Ventilation. (BCV) A refinement by Dr Hayek. Still in use in the 21st century, a polycarbonate shell and soft bladder is worn only over the chest

Other mechanical ventilation (not iron lungs)

• Bird Universal Medical Respirator 1955. (A ventilator, not a respirator)
• Modes of mechanical ventilation
• Mechanical ventilator
• Medical ventilator
• High frequency ventilation
• Liquid ventilator

Anaesthetic machines

• Boyle's machine
• Anaesthetic machine

Music

• Iron Lung (band), a punk band from Seattle
• Iron Lung (EP), a 1993 extended play (EP) by Pram
• My Iron Lung, a 1994 EP by Radiohead

• "My Iron Lung", a song by Radiohead; also appears on the 1995 album The Bends

See also

• Respiratory therapy
• Respirator a device designed to protect the wearer from inhaling harmful dusts, fumes, vapors, or gases.