Infusion Pumps

The setting up and priming of an intravenous infusion is a common nursing procedure. However, it is associated with certain complications, for example infection. This article describes a step-by-step guide to the equipment required, correct preparation of the patient and the procedure. It also provides readers with calculation of drip-rate formulae.

The first roller pump was patented in 1855 by Porter and Bradley and was hand operated. A modification first named "surgical pump", designed and manufactured by E. E. Allen in 1887, was intended for direct blood transfusion. Truax, who also distributed and promoted the Allen pump with one roller, developed the first double roller pump in 1899. In the following decades, several researchers, including Beck, Van Allen, Bayliss and Müller as well as Henry and Jouvelet, refined the apparatus and recommended the use of roller pumps for blood transfusion and other applications. After further modifications made by DeBakey in 1934, and application of this pump in one of the first heart-lung machines constructed by Gibbon, DeBakey's name became inseparably attached to this type of pump. For perfusion experiments, an electrically powered roller pump was first used by Fleisch in 1935. Today, the roller pump is the most frequently used blood pump for cardiopulmonary bypass worldwid...

En 1995 se creó un servicio de hospitalización a domicilio especializado en enfermedades infecciosas con la finalidad de mejorar la calidad de vida, reducir la estancia hospitalaria de los pacientes que precisan antibioterapia parenteral prolongada y mejorar el control del paciente al alta con vigilancia clínico-analítica. Revisamos la experiencia de dicho servicio entre 1995 y 2002 a partir de datos recogidos prospectivamente.Análisis del número de pacientes incluidos por año, el número de pacientes con infección por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH), el diagnóstico de enfermedad infecciosa, el servicio de origen, el tratamiento antimicrobiano administrado, el destino al alta y el motivo de reingreso hospitalario.El número de pacientes incluidos cada año durante el período de 1995 a 2002 fue: 52, 55, 77, 232, 213, 321, 280 y 219, respectivamente. El porcentaje de pacientes con infección por el VIH incluidos en el programa pasó del 90% en el año 1995 al 23% en el 2002. La causa principal de inclusión en el programa ha cambiado desde la sustitución del hospital de día para administración de tratamiento, a la consecución de un alta hospitalaria precoz. Mientras que la infección por citomegalovirus (CMV) fue el proceso tratado con mayor frecuencia durante el período 1995-1998, en los años siguientes fueron las infecciones bacterianas el diagnóstico de inclusión más frecuente. En 148 episodios la autoadministración y las bombas de infusion portátiles fueron utilizadas para administrar los antimicrobianos. La autoadministración se asoció a un mayor riesgo de complicaciones (24% frente a 12%; odds ratio [OR]: 2,3; intervalo de confianza del 95% [IC 95%]: 1,5-3,6; p < 0,001) y de sepsis de catéter (4% frente a 0; OR: 12,9; IC 95%: 10,9-15,3; p < 0,001). Los pacientes con infección por el VIH fueron reingresados debido a complicaciones no relacionadas con la hospitalización a domicilio con mayor frecuencia que los pacientes sin infección por el VIH.El porcentaje de pacientes con infección por el VIH incluidos en el programa ha disminuido progresivamente desde 1996 probablemente en relación con la introducción de la terapia antirretroviral de alta eficacia y un mejor control de las infecciones oportunistas. Las infecciones bacterianas son actualmente las infecciones más frecuentes atendidas en este servicio. El alta hospitalaria precoz es el principal motivo de inclusión en el programa.In 1995 a specialized home care service for infectious diseases was created in our institution. The aim was to improve the quality of life of patients with prolonged parenteral antimicrobial therapy requirements, reduce the length of hospital stay, and improve the care received after discharge by clinical and analytical surveillance. This study reviews the experience of this service from 1995 to 2002 using prospectively recorded data.An analysis was performed of the number of patients included in the home care program per year, number of patients with HIV infection, infectious disease diagnosed, department referring the patient, antimicrobial treatment administered, destination at discharge, and reason for hospital re-admission.The number of patients included each year from 1995 to 2002 was 52, 55, 77, 232, 213, 321, 280 and 219, respectively. The percentage of HIV-infected patients decreased from 90% in 1995 to 23% in 2002. The main reason for referral to the program changed from substitution of day-care hospital treatment to early discharge from hospitalization. Whereas CMV infection was the most frequent infection treated during the 1995-1998 period, bacterial infections predominated in the following years. In 148 episodes, self-administration or a portable infusion pump was used for drug administration. Self-administration was associated with a greater risk of complications (24% vs. 12%, OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.5-3.6, P < 0.001) and catheter-related sepsis (4% vs. 0%, OR 12.9, 95% CI 10.9-15.3, P < 0.001). HIV-infected patients were re-hospitalized due to complications unrelated to the home care service more frequently than HIV-uninfected patients.The percentage of HIV-infected patients included in the infectious disease home care service has progressively decreased since 1996, a fact likely to be related to the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy and better control of opportunistic infections. Currently, bacterial infections are the most frequent infections treated in the service. Early hospital discharge is now the main reason for referral to the home program.

Assess the impact of infusion pump technologies (traditional pump vs smart pump vs smart pump with barcode) on nurses&#39; ability to safely administer intravenous medications. Experimental study with a repeated measures design. High-fidelity simulated inpatient unit. The nurses remedied 60% of &quot;wrong drug&quot; errors. This rate did not vary as a function of pump type. The nurses remedied &quot;wrong patient&quot; errors more often when using the barcode pump (88%) than when using the traditional pump (46%) or the smart pump (58%) (Cochran Q=14.36; p&lt;0.05). The number of nurses who remedied &quot;wrong dose hard limit&quot; errors was higher when using the smart pump (75%) and the barcode pump (79%) than when using the traditional pump (38%) (Cochran Q=12.13; p&lt;0.003). Conversely, there was no difference in remediation of &quot;wrong dose soft limit&quot; errors across pump types. The nurses&#39; pump programming was less accurate when mathematical conversions were requi...

The metabolic effect of insulin pump therapy depends on precise adjustments of insulin to food intake ratio. Calculation of prandial insulin dose is a complex process employing many variant factors such as pre-prandial glucose and carbohydrate (CHO) levels, glucose index, insulin to CHO ratio (ICR) and active insulin. Bolus calculators are very effective in controlling blood glucose level in patients treated with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII). Most of modern bolus calculators are built into the insulin pump unit and are only accessible to pump users. In addition, some models offer nutrition database. Patients&#39; education is an essential step in proper interpretation and application of bolus calculators&#39; various algorithms.

This paper introduces an extended hierarchical task analysis (HTA) methodology devised to evaluate and compare user interfaces on volumetric infusion pumps. The pumps were studied along the dimensions of overall usability and propensity for generating human error. With HTA as our framework, we analyzed six pumps on a variety of common tasks using Norman&#39;s Action theory. The introduced method of evaluation divides the problem space between the external world of the device interface and the user&#39;s internal cognitive world, allowing for predictions of potential user errors at the human-device level. In this paper, one detailed analysis is provided as an example, comparing two different pumps on two separate tasks. The results demonstrate the inherent variation, often the cause of usage errors, found with infusion pumps being used in hospitals today. The reported methodology is a useful tool for evaluating human performance and predicting potential user errors with infusion pump...

According to data from the Italian Ministry of Health, people affected by type 1 diabetes are about 300,000 with an ever-growing trend. Of these, 18,000 are between 0 and 18 years of age. Diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease, characterized by the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin, resulting in the need to administer it through subcutaneous injections for all life. In recent decades, technological advances in the field of diabetes have greatly contributed to improve the quality of life of these young patients. The social, economic and health impact of type 1 diabetes makes it necessary to improve the management of the disease in order to prevent both acute and chronic complications. From this point of view, the technological evolution, from the devices currently available (continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pump systems, integrated systems) up to the next artificial pancreas, offers a great help.

Objective. To modify the traditional heuristic evaluation method of assessing software usability so that it can be applied to medical devices and used to evaluate the patient safety of those devices through the identification and assessment of usability problems. Design. Heuristic evaluation, a usability inspection method commonly used for software usability evaluation, was modified and extended for medical devices. The modified method was used to evaluate and compare the patient safety of two 1-channel volumetric infusion pumps. ...

A combination of propofol infusion and two bolus doses of buprenorphine, 2.5 or 5.0 μg/kg were evaluated in a total intravenous anaesthesia technique in 36 patients of ASA grade 1 or 2 undergoing cholecystectomy. Additional boluses of propofol were given intravenously if needed. Systolic blood pressure after tracheal intubation increased significantly only in those who received the smaller dose of buprenorphine. Patients in both groups remained haemodynamically stable throughout surgery with minimal side effects. Recovery was fast even with prolonged infusions and without major side effects. No patient reported awareness on postoperative questioning.

There are limited data on the use of elastomeric infusion pumps during hyperbaric oxygen treatment. This study evaluated the flow rate of the Baxter elastomeric LV10 Infusor™ pump under normobaric (101.3 kPa) and three hyperbaric conditions of 203 kPa, 243 kPa and 284 kPa. Elastomeric pumps were secured to participants in the same manner as for a typical patient, except that a container collected the delivered antibiotic solution. Pumps and tubing were weighed before and after the test period to determine volume delivered and to calculate flow rates at sea level and the three commonly used hyperbaric treatment pressures at two different time periods, 0-2 hours (h) and 19-21 h into the infusion. The mean flow rates in ml·h⁻¹ (SD) were: 9.5 (0.4), 10.3 (0.6), 10.4 (0.6), 10.4 (0.5) at 0-2 h and 10.5 (1.0), 12.2 (0.6), 9.4 (0.5), 10.3 (0.9) at 19-21 h for the normobaric, 203 kPa, 243 kPa and 284 kPa conditions respectively. There was no significant association between flow rate and tim...

BACKGROUND Administering multiple intravenous (IV) infusions to a single patient via infusion pump occurs routinely in health care, but there has been little empirical research examining the risks associated with this practice or ways to mitigate those risks. OBJECTIVES To identify the risks associated with multiple IV infusions and assess the impact of interventions on nurses&#39; ability to safely administer them. DATA SOURCES AND REVIEW METHODS Forty nurses completed infusion-related tasks in a simulated adult intensive care unit, with and without interventions (i.e., repeated-measures design). RESULTS Errors were observed in completing common tasks associated with the administration of multiple IV infusions, including the following (all values from baseline, which was current practice): setting up and programming multiple primary continuous IV infusions (e.g., 11.7% programming errors)identifying IV infusions (e.g., 7.7% line-tracing errors)managing dead volume (e.g., 96.0% flus...