I-Corps: Portable Hands Free Medical Suction Device for Combat and Emergency Medicine

在紧急情况下，急救员的首要任务是创建和维护患者的呼吸道。一旦建立了呼吸道，响应者就会确定出血的位置，并止血。应答者完成这些任务的速度和效率往往决定着患者的生存概率。对于响应者在远程位置处理的情况尤其如此。对于实际或即将发生呼吸道损害和/或出血的患者，熟练的干预措施往往对患者的生存具有至关重要的影响。在最好的情况下，在止血的同时创建、管理和维持呼吸道也是困难的。在没有设备齐全的医院的情况下，手术或应对措施会产生额外的独特和复杂的挑战。急救人员缺乏医院通常提供的一些先进的救生工具，如高功率吸引器，而在现场抢救病人时，这种工具可能无法获得或无法有效。在更危险的环境中，如在军事行动期间，狭小的空间和敌对行动限制了通过人工气道或辅助通风为受伤士兵进行干预的能力。因此，开发一种功能强大、重量轻的手持真空吸引器将极大地提高军医清理和维护士兵呼吸道的能力，以及清理伤口和止血的能力。对于大多数分诊伤员来说，进行间歇性但有效的吸引术可以显著增加存活的机会，直到可以应用更高水平的急救。抽吸术是清理和维持紧急呼吸道的关键但简单有效的方法，或者允许抢救人员在充满碎片的伤口中定位出血的来源。但是，尽管吸引术对于挽救患者是多么关键，但由于缺乏足够的工具，它仍然是在偏远医疗环境中执行的最困难的功能之一。因此，i-Corps团队的最终目标是制作、测试和准备制造一种便携式吸引器，用于紧急呼吸道管理和出血控制。正在开发的设备旨在取代市场上现有的设备，这些设备在有效性、便携性、吸力和微粒去除方面都不能令人满意。实验室正在进行的工作已经导致了早期的设计，吸引装置的持续开发将极大地提高急救人员和军事提供者护理危重伤员的能力。继续的工作将包括开发和实施设计反馈和控制系统，以满足紧急护理的需要并确保患者安全。这个拟议的项目将提供系统的市场研究，并确定设备性能规格。此外，将把客户反馈融入工程设计过程中，以确保最终产品将是客户的最佳解决方案。最后，将应用流体动力学分析、数学建模以及验证和验证，以确保供人类使用的设备的有效性和安全性，并确保设备达到规范中概述的水平。

During emergency situations the primary priority of a responder is to create and maintain a patient's airway. Once an airway has been established the responder then works to determine the location of any hemorrhages and staunch the blood loss. How quickly and efficiently a responder can accomplish these tasks often determines the probability of survival of the patient. This is especially true for scenarios where a responder is dealing in a remote location. Skilled interventions often make the critical difference in survival for patients with actual or impending airway compromise and/or hemorrhaging. Creating, managing, and maintaining an airway in combination with stopping blood loss are difficult in the best of situations. An operation or response where a well-equipped hospital is not available generates additional layers of unique and complex challenges. Emergency care providers lack some of the advanced life saving tools normally available in hospitals such as high-powered suction, which may not be available or effective when responding to patients in the field. In even more hazardous environments such as during military operations, the confined spaces and hostile action limit the ability to intervene with an artificial airway or assisted ventilation for wounded soldiers. Therefore, the development of a powerful, lightweight, handheld vacuum suction device would greatly enhance the ability of a military medic to clear and maintain a soldier's airway, as well as the ability to clear wounds and stop bleeding. For most triage injuries the ability to have intermittent but effective suctioning increases the chance of survival significantly until a higher level of emergency care can be applied.Suction is a critical yet simple and effective way to clear and maintain an emergency airway, or allow a responder to locate the source of a hemorrhage in debris filled wound. But, despite how critical suction is to saving patients, it remains one of the most difficult functions to perform in remote medical environments due to the lack of adequate tools. Therefore, the ultimate goal for this I-Corps team is to prototype, test, and prepare for manufacture a portable suction device for use in emergency airway management and hemorrhage control. The device under development is intended to replace current devices on the market, which are unsatisfactory in terms of effectiveness, portability, suction power, and particulate removal. Ongoing work in the lab has led to early designs, and the continued development of a suction device would greatly enhance the ability of emergency responders and military providers to care for critically wounded patients. Continued work will consist of development and implementation of a design feedback and control system to meet the needs of emergency care and ensure patient safety. This proposed project will provide a systematic marketing study and define device performance specifications. In addition, incorporation of customer feedback will be blended with the engineering design process to ensure that the final product will be the best solution for the customer. Finally, fluid dynamic analysis, mathematical modeling, and verification and validation will be applied to ensure the efficacy and safety of the device for human use, and to ensure that the device preforms to the level that will be outlined in the specifications.