A Low Cost Device for Monitoring the Urine Output of Critical Care Patients

Francisco Palacios,Abraham Otero,Teodor Akinfiev,Andrey Apalkov

doi:10.3390/s101210714

Abstract

In critical care units most of the patients’ physiological parameters are sensed by commercial monitoring devices. These devices can also supervise whether the values of the parameters lie within a pre-established range set by the clinician. The automation of the sensing and supervision tasks has discharged the healthcare staff of a considerable workload and avoids human errors, which are common in repetitive and monotonous tasks. Urine output is very likely the most relevant physiological parameter that has yet to be sensed or supervised automatically. This paper presents a low cost patent-pending device capable of sensing and supervising urine output. The device uses reed switches activated by a magnetic float in order to measure the amount of urine collected in two containers which are arranged in cascade. When either of the containers fills, it is emptied automatically using a siphon mechanism and urine begins to collect again. An electronic unit sends the state of the reed switches via Bluetooth to a PC that calculates the urine output from this information and supervises the achievement of therapeutic goals.

Highlights

Nowadays, nearly any physiological parameter of a patient admitted to a critical care unit is sensed automatically by sophisticated commercial monitoring devices
Using the knowledge we gained building it, we developed a second device with the main objective of conducting a series of clinical studies based on a more continuous and accurate monitoring of urine output throughout the stay of patients in a critical care unit [21,22]
As we argued in the introduction of the article, in a critical care unit of a developed country with 15 patients, approximately 12 hours per day are necessary for tasks related to supervising urine output

Summary

Introduction

Nearly any physiological parameter of a patient admitted to a critical care unit is sensed automatically by sophisticated commercial monitoring devices This provides clinicians with invaluable information for interpreting the patient’s state. In most cases, these devices can supervise whether the values of the physiological parameters they sense remain within a pre-established range set by the clinician. If a parameter does not fall within its acceptable range, audible warnings to alert the health care staff are generated [1,2] These devices discharge the healthcare staff of a considerable workload, since they need not continuously supervise whether the physiological parameters of every patient lie within the acceptable range. They avoid human errors, which are common in any repetitive and monotonous task such as the supervision of physiological parameters [3,4]

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Discussion

Conclusion