A Handy Preterm Infant Incubator for Providing Intensive Care: Simulation, 3D Printed Prototype, and Evaluation.

Amira J Zaylaa,Mounir Shaib,Imad El Majzoub,Mohamad Rashid

doi:10.1155/2018/8937985

Abstract

Preterm infants encounter an abrupt delivery before their complete maturity during the third trimester of pregnancy. Polls anticipate an increase in the rates of preterm infants for 2025, especially in middle- and low-income countries. Despite the abundance of intensive care methods for preterm infants, such as, but not limited to, commercial, transport, embrace warmer, radiant warmer, and Kangaroo Mother Care methods, they are either expensive, lack the most essential requirements or specifications, or lack the maternal-preterm bond. This drove us to carry this original research and innovative idea of developing a new 3D printed prototype of a Handy preterm infant incubator. We aim to provide the most indispensable intensive care with the lowest cost, to bestow low-income countries with the Handy incubator's care, preserve the maternal -preterm's bond, and diminish the rate of mortality. Biomedical features, electronics, and biocompatible materials were utilized. The design was simulated, the prototype was 3D printed, and the outcomes were tested and evaluated. Simulation results showed the best fit for the Handy incubator's components. Experimental results showed the 3D-printed prototype and the time elapsed to obtain it. Evaluation results revealed that the overall performance of Kangaroo Mother Care and the embrace warmer was 75 ± 1.4% and 66.7 ± 1.5%, respectively, while the overall performance of our Handy incubator was 91.7 ± 1.6%, thereby our cost-effective Handy incubator surpassed existing intensive care methods. The future step is associating the Handy incubator with more specifications and advancements.

Highlights

Preterm delivery is the abrupt occurrence of birth at less than 37th week of pregnancy
As the global anticipated rate of preterm infant’s mortality for 2025 is 91%, this drove us to tackle this problem and develop a new preterm incubator prototype to promote the intensive care with a low cost. e aim of our study is to develop and 3D print a new handy, portable, and cost-effective liquid crystal display- (LCD-) based incubator for providing intensive care, especially in middle- and low-income countries
ON/OFF switch Power source Gear handle (c) is 8 cm. e plastic shield thickness is 0.50 cm, and the mylar and bamboo layers are 0.55 mm each. e thickness of the gel pack is 2 cm. e blue, green, red, and yellow colors in Figure 2(b) represent the outer layer, plastic shield, gel pack, and the infant, respectively. e outer layer surrounds the infant; thereby, it contains a hall of radius 10 cm and three small rectangles

Summary

Introduction

Preterm delivery is the abrupt occurrence of birth at less than 37th week of pregnancy. That is, 27–40 weeks of pregnancy when the major fetal development stage occurs, the infant undergoes a dramatic transfusion in their respiratory system which enables them to breathe for the first time. Fifteen million preterm infants were born in 2010. E preterm deliveries were ranked as the first cause of mortality of preterm infants, during the first month of birth and after birth. It is globally ranked as the second cause of death for children who did not complete their 5 years [2]

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