Manual ventilation is the standard means of providing emergency ventilatory support. Despite its wide-spread use, it remains a skill with high variability regardless of a healthcare provider’s qualifications, training, experience, or confidence.
This may be attributable to inherent challenges in an emergency situation, coupled with the minimal safeguards available with manual resuscitator. Such variability can lead to hyperventilation, including overventilation, and/or hypoventilation, including underventilation, each carrying risks of severe complications such as aspiration pneumonia, lung injury, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and even death.