Design of a Digital Pleural Drainage System

Following operations on the heart/lungs or other viscera inside the thoracic cavity, an amount of blood and/or air leak ensues which is drained out of the body. The air and blood leakage rates are monitored carefully in the few hours after the operation as an unacceptable amount or rate of such leakage may need urgent surgical intervention. In most hospitals, assessment of this leak is carried out visually by the nurse who makes interpretation about the state of the patient and records the data manually on paper. The proposed digital system enables automatic measurement, data processing, storage and transmission of drainage data. The system enables simultaneous monitoring of several patients and, presents data to the medical personnel in a user-friendly manner. Additionally, it provides for setting patient-specific alarm threshold for varying clinical situations. It further enables medical practitioners to retrieve electronically-stored patient data for research and quality assurance purposes.