Abstract
Measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) in medical applications is a well-established method for monitoring patient’s pulmonary function in a noninvasive way widely used in emergency, intensive care, and during anesthesia. Even in extracorporeal-life support applications, such as Extracorporeal Carbon Dioxide Removal (ECCO2R), Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and cardiopulmonary by-pass (CPB), measurement of the CO2 concentration in the membrane oxygenator exhaust gas is proven to be useful to evaluate the treatment progress as well as the performance of the membrane oxygenator. In this paper, we present a new optical sensor specifically designed for the measurement of CO2 concentration in oxygenator exhaust gas. Further, the developed sensor allows measurement of the gas flow applied to the membrane oxygenator as well as the estimation of the CO2 removal rate. A heating module is implemented within the sensor to avoid water vapor condensation. Effects of temperature on the sensor optical elements of the sensors are disclosed, as well as a method to avoid signal–temperature dependency. The newly developed sensor has been tested and compared against a reference device routinely used in clinical practice in both laboratory and in vivo conditions. Results show that sensor accuracy fulfills the requirements of the ISO standard, and that is suitable for clinical applications.
Highlights
Capnometry is the measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) concentration in respiratory gases [1].It is a well-known and established method for monitoring patient’s pulmonary function in a noninvasive way, widely used in emergency situations, as well as in intensive care or during anesthesia [2,3,4,5]
Even if the traditional use of capnometry is related to the field of respiratory monitoring, the application of this measurement in extracorporeal life support (ECLS) systems such as Cardio-Pulmonary Bypass (CPB) [6], Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) [7], and Extracorporeal Carbon Dioxide Removal (ECCO2 R) [8] has been proposed
We present a new sensor designed for measurement of carbon dioxide concentration in the exhaust gas of a membrane oxygenator during extracorporeal procedures
Summary
Capnometry is the measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) concentration in respiratory gases [1].It is a well-known and established method for monitoring patient’s pulmonary function in a noninvasive way, widely used in emergency situations, as well as in intensive care or during anesthesia [2,3,4,5]. Even if the traditional use of capnometry is related to the field of respiratory monitoring, the application of this measurement in extracorporeal life support (ECLS) systems such as Cardio-Pulmonary Bypass (CPB) [6], Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) [7], and Extracorporeal Carbon Dioxide Removal (ECCO2 R) [8] has been proposed. The goal of these procedures is to add oxygen (O2 ) and remove carbon dioxide (CO2 ) from patient blood, which is pumped through a membrane oxygenator (MO) where, gas exchange between the blood and sweep gas in the MO takes place. All the procedures mentioned above represent complex systems that require
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