An intelligent IV SET (Intravenous Set) that prevents reverse flow of blood
- 0 Collaborators
The demand for medicine and doctors are never-ending and ever-green as our society has been revolutionized and the life expectancy rate has increased. Everyone right from a six-year-old to 90 year old are aware of what all kind of diseases exists as of now, specialization of doctors, which doctor to approach when we have a particular problem and so on. Thus a common wish prevailing in everyone no matter their age is that to live long and stay in pink of health. Adding to this point, millions and millions of innovations are being made in the medicinal field every decade to enhance the average life expectancy rate. There are various sectors of engineering that are involved in creating and/or maintaining various medical instruments. Say from the smallest equipment like syringe to the largest one like CT scan machine have major contributions from the engineering sectors. IV Set (Intravenous set) is one among those substantial inventions in the medicinal field, it is actually used for transferring blood or saline from the IV/fluid bag to the patient’s body at a speed and pressure that the human body can accept. There is a notable threat associated with using the IV set as well which most of the doctors and care takers are aware of, which is when the fluid in the IV bag runs out the patient’s blood would start flowing through the IV tube in the reverse direction towards the empty IV bag as the pressure of blood in the human body is more than the pressure ex-perienced by the empty IV bag (diffusion), thus leading to blood loss. Thus the care takers must be vigilant enough to replace the fluid bag when it runs out to avoid blood loss. The innovation proposed here is a solution that would prevent such blood losses and doesn’t require manual monitoring of the IV bag. ...learn more
Project status: Under Development
Overview / Usage
Here, with a simple setup, the reverse flow of the blood is prevented in the IV Set. We have achieved this at a very affordable cost.
Methodology / Approach
The product is of cuboidal shape that can be opened as shown in first Fig . It has a special slot to hold the IV tube in place as shown in second Fig . The box must be locked for it to work appropriately. The IR emitter and photosensitive receiver are placed in either sides of the IV slot as shown in third. The IR signals emitted by the source passes through the IV tube and reaches the receiver. The receiver measures the intensity of the signal and sends to the control setup. Based on the intensity, the micro-controller decides if the drug/saline is flowing or not. The micro-controller compares the value with a threshold. If the value is less than the fixed threshold, then the saline/drug is mediated to be present in the tube and flow monitoring continues. When the value outruns the threshold, the saline/drug is mediated to be exhausted and the signal is sent to the pincher and alert setup. The pincher that is placed perpendicular to the IV slot tightens the tube. It ensures that the tube is tightly closed and there will not be back flow of blood. The alert setup comprises of a LED which glows green initially when the flow is normal. When the micro-controller signals the alerting set up that the flow is no more in the tube, color of LED changes to red and starts blinking to give a visual alert to the people around. Thus it can be inferred that the mechanism of slide clamp is automated. Fig 4 shows the flow chart of the plan proposed. The Design of the prototype built is shared in 5th figure. (Refer to the figures uploaded in order)
Technologies Used
Microcontrollers, IR Sensors, IVSET.
Repository
http://www.inderscience.com/info/ingeneral/forthcoming.php?jcode=ijmei