Blood Treatment Device Priming for Rapid Therapy Swaps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing blood treatment devices face challenges in priming due to the presence of air or gas bubbles, which can cause embolisms and clotting, and replacing these devices during therapy sessions is difficult, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs due to the need to discard entire circuits.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for priming blood treatment devices using an ancillary disposable set with a drain bag that automatically stops fluid flow when full, ensuring air or gas does not enter the device, allowing for unattended priming and easy replacement during therapy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automated priming systems are used to remove air bubbles, then priming efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases and the treatment system becomes tied up
Solution Approach 1:
The drain bag is designed with pre-marked volume indicators that automatically indicate when the bag is full, eliminating the need for external monitoring or control systems. The system self-regulates the priming process through simple visual cues, maintaining high efficiency without adding complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The priming function is separated from the main treatment system by using a standalone drain bag with volume markings. This segmentation allows the priming operation to be performed independently without tying up the complex treatment system, resolving the contradiction between efficiency and system availability.
2Duration of action of stationary object
If blood treatment devices are replaced during therapy sessions, then treatment continuity is improved, but blood loss and downtime increase without proper priming
Solution Approach 1:
The drain bag is pre-prepared with volume markings before use, allowing operators to quickly assess priming status without complex measurements. This preliminary preparation enables rapid device replacement during therapy sessions, maintaining treatment continuity while minimizing downtime.
3Reliability
If entire circuits are discarded when blood treatment devices need replacement, then safety is improved by avoiding contamination, but waste increases substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts only the blood treatment device for replacement while preserving the rest of the circuit. The marked drain bag enables safe isolation and replacement of just the necessary component, maintaining safety by preventing contamination while reducing waste of the reusable circuit portions.
4Device complexity
If manual priming techniques are used (hammering, inverting, shaking), then device complexity is minimized, but priming effectiveness decreases and blood loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces complex manual mechanical operations (hammering, inverting, shaking) with a simple passive system using gravity and volume-marked drain bags. This substitution maintains minimal device complexity while dramatically improving priming effectiveness by providing clear visual feedback on priming status.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Minimizes blood loss and downtime by enabling safe and rapid swapping of blood treatment devices, reducing therapy interruptions and minimizing waste.
Implementation Method 1
drain bag whose capacity is predefined and whose elastic properties and size are selected to ensure that the predefined volume of fluid held by the medical fluid bag is more than blood and non-blood compartments volume of the blood treatment device plus the volume of the drain bag
Data Source
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AI summary
Simple-to-use systems, methods, and devices for priming replacement blood treatment devices, for swapping the blood treatment devices out, for replacing swapped-out blood treatment devices, and other related operations are described. In embodiments, a blood treatment device can be primed while a therapy is still running. When the replacement blood treatment device is needed, the therapy can be stopped momentarily (less than a minute) for the rapid and safe swap of the blood treatment device. Blood loss can be minimized. The down time from therapy can be minimized.