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Pedal Controlled Syringe
Our sponsor's solution to this would be to have a device which holds two syringes which can inject and aspirate it by foot pedals. These foot pedals would control which syringe, or fluid, would be manipulated, whether the device was injecting or aspirating the syringe, and control the speed at which it moves. Providing the physician the ability to control these syringes would not only open up the opportunities of using ultrasound in the medical field, but also provide the physician more control in the operating room to provide a safer operation.
One of our sponsors concerns when during operations is the amount of pressure that is produced by the syringe. Previous studies has shown that pressures around 300 mmHg could potentially harm patients. So our secondary task of our project is to implement a pressure transducer in our design which would be able to use disposable pressure transducers to read off the pressure of injection and aspiration during operation. Our device will constantly read off pressures and will shut off the motor and notify the user that injection pressures have reached a dangerous level.
Figure 1: Sponsor Initial Concept
Background:
Ultrasound has become a widely-used imaging modality to guide needle placement during preoperative procedures for regional anesthesia during surgery and postoperative pain control. More recently, it has begun to be used by Pain Medicine physicians to perform joint, peripheral nerve, and spine procedures to treat chronic pain. A major limiting factor that prevents the widespread acceptance and utilization of this imaging modality is that it requires two health care providers using the currently available technology: one to hold the ultrasound probe and manipulate the needle, the second to perform the injection with intermittent aspiration (to assess for unwanted intravascular positioning of the needle tip) and subjectively evaluate injection pressures (high injection pressures may indicate unwanted intraneural injection).
This project hope to make technique perform able by one healthcare provider to increase acceptance and utilization.
Objective:
The main objective of this project is to safely eliminate the need of the second healthcare provider whom performs the injections and aspirations. Our product would give the primary physician the complete control of the syringes while still having control over the needle and the ultrasound device.
Figure 2: Final Design
