Blood Oxygenator Equilibration Unit for Anesthetic Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for improved methods to accurately monitor and control the concentration of inhalational anesthetics in patients undergoing extracorporeal circulation, as existing methods are either inaccurate or not feasible during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, leading to risks of underdosage or overdosage.
Innovation Solution
A blood oxygenator device equipped with an equilibration-measurement unit that allows for precise determination of inhalational anesthetic concentration in the blood by maintaining a gas phase in contact with the blood, using a membrane impermeable to blood but permeable to anesthetics, and employing sensors for accurate measurement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If end-expiratory concentration analysis is used to monitor inhalational anesthetic levels, then monitoring is feasible in normal surgical procedures, but the method becomes inaccurate or infeasible during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery due to interrupted blood flow through the lungs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an equilibrating chamber as an intermediary component between the blood and the measurement system. This chamber allows the blood to equilibrate with a gas phase, enabling indirect measurement of anesthetic concentration in the blood through the gas phase without requiring direct blood sampling or lung function, thus making monitoring feasible during cardiopulmonary bypass
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/physiological system of lung-based monitoring with a chemical/equilibrium-based system. Instead of relying on pulmonary gas exchange and end-expiratory analysis, the system uses gas-liquid equilibrium in a controlled chamber to transfer and measure anesthetic concentration, substituting the natural physiological pathway with an engineered equilibrium process
2Measurement precision
If tight monitoring of blood anesthetic levels is implemented, then dosing accuracy is improved, but the system complexity and measurement difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The equilibrating chamber serves as a simplifying intermediary that converts difficult-to-measure dissolved anesthetic in blood into easily measurable gas phase concentration. This intermediary approach maintains high measurement precision while avoiding complex direct blood analysis systems
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the phase transition equilibrium between dissolved anesthetic in blood and vapor-phase anesthetic in the equilibrating chamber. By measuring the vapor phase concentration, the system indirectly determines blood concentration with high precision without requiring complex liquid-phase analysis equipment
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
This solution enables continuous, accurate monitoring of inhalational anesthetic levels in patients during extracorporeal circulation, reducing the risk of underdosage or overdosage and ensuring safe anesthesia levels.
Implementation Method 1
wherein said equilibration-measurement unit comprises a membrane which is impermeable to blood, but permeable to an inhalational anesthetic
Implementation Method 2
contact between the first compartment and the second compartment is provided by a membrane which is impermeable to blood, but permeable to an inhalational anesthetic
Implementation Method 3
wherein a gas phase is in contact with the blood flowing through the equilibration-measurement unit such that equilibration with respect to an inhalational anesthetic present in the blood occurs between the blood flowing through the equilibration-measurement unit and the gas phase
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2D
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a blood oxygenator device comprising an equilibration-measurement unit for determining the concentration of an inhalational anesthetic in the blood of a patient, a method of manufacturing such a blood oxygenator device and methods of using such a blood oxygenator device.