Pressure monitor in endotracheal cuff for effective intubation of patients

Abstract

Mechanical ventilation is usually used in patients found in the intensive care units in order to avoid the appearance of respiratory acidosis, rise the oxygenation levels and reduce the workload of breathing. Endotracheal tubes have a special cuff located in the tracheal area which is used to assure an efficient ventilation of the patient. These cuffs are generally inflated without measuring its pressure, which could cause several damages to tracheal tissue or under-oxygenation. An instrument for the measurement of the endotracheal cuff pressure is proposed in this study for its use in clinical environments. It consists on an analog and digital system which measures the pressure inside the cuff and displays it on an LCD. It is portable, easy to use, non-invasive, has suitable resolution, and in a future iteration will feature a wireless communication module for its use in intensive care units. Its mean appeal is the possibility of deploying it as a cheap, high-resolution and self-calibrating monitoring device for the measurement of the pressure on the endotracheal cuff, reducing the occurrence of complications that may arise from high pressure in the cuff.