Anesthesia Gas Control via Concentration Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current anesthesia machines face challenges in maintaining accurate gas concentrations due to indirect and slow user adjustments, leading to potential harm, and existing solutions like double monitoring and gas sampling incur high costs.
Innovation Solution
A software-based monitoring system that compares inspired gas, expired gas, and CO2 concentrations to automatically control the gas dispenser, eliminating the need for additional hardware and reducing costs by detecting malfunctions through concentration equality and changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If double monitoring is used to ensure safety, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the relationship between inspired and expired gas concentrations and provides feedback to detect malfunctions. The control device compares the monitored concentrations and triggers alarms when abnormalities are detected, enabling safety through intelligent feedback rather than redundant hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The single monitor device performs self-verification by monitoring its own measurements against expected physiological relationships. The system detects faults in the monitoring process itself by analyzing the consistency between inspired and expired gas concentrations, eliminating the need for separate monitoring devices.
2Measurement precision
If gas sampling hardware is used to monitor concentrations, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The single monitor device performs multiple functions: it measures both inspired and expired gas concentrations, detects malfunctions, and provides control feedback. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate gas sampling hardware while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the single monitor device to verify measurement accuracy by comparing inspired and expired concentrations against expected physiological relationships. This feedback mechanism enables precise monitoring without requiring additional sampling hardware.
3Productivity
If automatic control is implemented to improve response speed, then productivity is improved, but reliability may worsen due to potential system failures
Solution Approach 1:
The automatic control system continuously receives feedback from the monitor device comparing inspired and expired gas concentrations. When the system detects abnormalities or malfunctions through this feedback, it can alert operators or adjust control parameters, maintaining reliability while preserving fast automatic response.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares for potential failures by continuously monitoring the integrity of its own measurements and the physiological consistency of gas concentrations. This beforehand detection capability allows the system to prevent or mitigate the harmful effects of potential failures before they occur.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
Anaesthesia machine arrangement and a method comprising a gas dispenser (10) of an anaesthesia machine connected to a patient circuit (13) comprising, a monitor device (7), a control device (9) and an interface unit (12). The gas dispenser (10) is configured to deliver a desired concentration of fresh gas (FG) to the patient circuit (13), the desired concentration being set by using the interface unit (12). The monitor device (7) is configured to monitor gas concentrations. The control device (9) is configured to control the gas dispenser (10) from the basis of the data received from the monitor device (7) to keep the desired fresh gas concentration. The monitor device (7) is configured to monitor and indicate if in the situation the fresh gas (FG) concentration is higher than expired gas (ET) concentration, the fresh gas concentration (FG) is lower that the expired gas (ET) concentration, or the fresh gas (FG) concentration is equal to the expired gas (ET) concentration, the inspired gas (Fi) concentration keeps changing.