Soluble gas tight capsules for use in surgical quality testing

TY - CHAP

T1 - Soluble gas tight capsules for use in surgical quality testing

AU - Vorstius, J. B.

AU - Thomson, G.A.

AU - Slade, A.P.

PY - 2008/1/1

Y1 - 2008/1/1

N2 - During many surgical procedures such as gastrointestinal or vascular surgery it is necessary to excise and reconnect bodily conduits. Failed connections can have extremely serious consequences and a method to help surgeons determine the integrity of connections has been proposed. This involves the detection of trace gas breaching an anastomosis. A key feature of this is establishing a method to place a controlled volume of gas into the conduit. A soluble capsule method is presented here. The requirements were that the capsule must be safe, a volume of 0.5 - 1.0ml of gas at 2 Bar pressure should be contained, that the filling gas can be varied to suit the clinical application and that the capsules have a shelf life of at least 5 days without showing loss of gas. A device and procedure were developed to meet these criteria. This consists of modified oral pharmaceutical capsules and a capsule filling mechanism contained in a vacuum chamber. Sealing the capsules has been achieved via an alcohol / water mix coupled to capilliary action. Results show performance which meets the design specification and the capsules have shown themselves effective in tests using phantom scenarios.

AB - During many surgical procedures such as gastrointestinal or vascular surgery it is necessary to excise and reconnect bodily conduits. Failed connections can have extremely serious consequences and a method to help surgeons determine the integrity of connections has been proposed. This involves the detection of trace gas breaching an anastomosis. A key feature of this is establishing a method to place a controlled volume of gas into the conduit. A soluble capsule method is presented here. The requirements were that the capsule must be safe, a volume of 0.5 - 1.0ml of gas at 2 Bar pressure should be contained, that the filling gas can be varied to suit the clinical application and that the capsules have a shelf life of at least 5 days without showing loss of gas. A device and procedure were developed to meet these criteria. This consists of modified oral pharmaceutical capsules and a capsule filling mechanism contained in a vacuum chamber. Sealing the capsules has been achieved via an alcohol / water mix coupled to capilliary action. Results show performance which meets the design specification and the capsules have shown themselves effective in tests using phantom scenarios.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/70350637531

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-540-89208-3_213

DO - 10.1007/978-3-540-89208-3_213

M3 - Other chapter contribution

AN - SCOPUS:70350637531

VL - 22

SP - 895

EP - 898

BT - IFMBE Proceedings 4th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering

ER -