A disconnect/pressure monitor
Michael A. Campbell · cIRcle (University of British Columbia) · 2010
Present methods of monitoring, anesthetic breathing circuits for mechanical faults are flawed by inadequacies in the design of disconnect/pressure monitors (DPMs), devices which monitor breathing circuit pressure waveforms. Such inadequacies are investigated, and their cause is identified. A microprocessor based DPM, which applies pattern recognition techniques to the task of disconnect monitoring is proposed, and its design and implementation are presented. Technical and clinical trials show that the prototype DPM consistently detects almost all mechanical faults in the anesthetic breathing circuit. It is concluded that pattern recognition based DPMs are significantly more effective than their present day counterparts.