Establishing a Ventilator-Heart Lung Machine Communication Bridge to Mitigate Errors when Weaning from Bypass

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Anesthesiology
• Cardiovascular Surgery

Background:

• Failure to ventilate after cardiopulmonary bypass can lead to patient hypoxia.
• Current communication methods between the heart-lung machine and ventilator are insufficient to prevent this critical error.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a redundant safety system using electronic communication to prevent failure to ventilate errors.
• To create an integrated alarm system between the heart-lung machine and ventilator.

Main Methods:

• Developed a software application to bridge electronic data between the heart-lung machine and ventilator.
• The software interprets pump flow and respiratory rate data to detect simultaneous cessation.
• Implemented a programmed smart alarm triggered when both systems are inactive.

Main Results:

• Successfully created a software application capable of real-time data interpretation from both devices.
• The system reliably triggered an alarm when pump flow and respiratory rate were simultaneously zero.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of electronic communication between heart-lung machines and ventilators for safety.

Conclusions:

• An electronic communication system can effectively prevent failure to ventilate errors after cardiopulmonary bypass.
• This safety system can be deployed as a standalone alarm or integrated into advanced OR process models.
• The developed technology enhances patient safety during complex cardiac surgical procedures.