For background, see John's
article.
Re: "anaesthesia
vs standard ventilators" ... there are various ways of classifying ventilators (such as their cycling methods, and (or) method of operation).
However, for our purposes here, anaesthesia ventilators - sometimes known as "theatre ventilators" (especially those from earlier times) are (were) invariably gas driven only (that is, no electrical power required). They are (were) of the pressure cycled, positive pressure type. They usually sat underneath an anaesthesia machine, to form part of the tubing circuit to (and these days, from) the patient.
On the other hand, ITU-type ventilators are usually volume cycled, and include comprehensive controls (settings) and various levels of alarm circuitry. All this requires electrical power. The gas supplies are generally taken from the hospital PMG system.
For the exercise in hand, we should only be considering the latter type of ventilator - the ITU-type (of which the old Siemens Servo 900C, or - more recently - Puritan-Bennett 840 are but two well known examples).
Clinically, the thing to bear in mind is that anaesthesia (theatre) ventilators are normally used on healthy lungs; whilst ITU ventilators may (and often
are) used on damaged or diseased lungs.
