A Smart Soft Robotic Tool for Semi-Automated Intubation
Abstract
Intubation is a lifesaving procedure for patients with respiratory failure or severe disease such as massive trauma or sepsis. Here, for patients with compromised airways or difficulty breathing, a physician or emergency medical service (EMS) worker guides an endotracheal tube down the airway of the patient to maintain the patients ability to breath. Often intubation is required prior to transferring patients for stabilization when they are no longer able to breath adequately on their own. Roughly 50 million intubation procedures are performed globally each year. In hospitals intubations are performed regularly with reasonably good outcomes. However, in the field, when procedures are performed in an uncontrolled setting by Emergency Medical Services (EMS), rates of failure and/or complication are higher, more than 20%. These failed intubation comes with significant complications including, prolonged hypoxia and subsequent brain injury, hemodynamic instability, injury to the upper airway, aspiration pneumonia, and death. This proposal addresses the topics of respiratory health and emerging viral diseases and to a lesser degree, hemorrhage control. While intubation can be required for a wide variety of reasons, intubation is often required to address patients with impaired reparatory health and is a common procedure for patient with pneumonia, COPD, aspiration, and respiratory failure. Intubation has also been a critical procedure in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and is an aerosolizing procedure known to increase the risk of COVID transmission from patient to healthcare worker. Beyond the need for safe intubations during the pandemic, there is a need for intubation tools that allow the operator to maintain a safe distance from the patient, as intubation procedures were responsible for a significant amount of the spread of COVID-19 to healthcare workers. Over the course of 2020, 3,600 U.S. healthcare workers died from COVID-19. Finally, in patients with uncontrolled bleeding, intubation is often required for stabilization. A lightweight, easy-to-operate tool for semi-automated intubation will be developed. The devices uses lightweight soft robotic actuators with embedded flexible electronic sensors to monitor its position and, using capnography, guide itself down the patient’s airway. Compared to other technologies for automated intubation that require rigid and bulky robotic hardware, soft robotics are small, lightweight, and require minimal controls. Furthermore, because actuators are constructed from intrinsically soft material, they are inherently safe and unlikely to harm patients during procedures. The device is designed to have a similar size and shape to traditional tools for intubation, but should allow the procedure to be performed more successfully in chaotic setting and with less experienced operators (such as EMS). Overall, this device will reduce the difficulty of and improve the effectiveness of intubation procedures in controlled and emergent conditions. This will reduce the burden for training and allowing a wider variety of healthcare workers to perform these lifesaving procedures, which is especially relevant in remote and combat environments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 28, 2022
- Source ID
- W81XWH2210103
Entities
People
- Simon Dunham
Organizations
- United States Army
- Weill Cornell Medicine