Airway clearance is a foremost priority for combat medics dealing with battlefield trauma. This life saving intervention starts with inspection, clearing any obstructions from the airway, and if necessary, placement of an endotracheal tube to secure the airway. For inspecting and clearing the airway under complicated battlefield conditions, combat medics require a portable suction device that is compact, lightweight, rugged, and capable of rapidly evacuating a mix of liquid and solid particles, which may include bone fragments or broken teeth. While several portable suction devices are available on the market, none were developed specifically for the combat environment. Interviews with combat medics and other relevant personnel revealed that currently available systems are limited in utility to the point of often being intentionally omitted from their kits. In addition, these discussions identified several design specifications for a desired system, such as size (30 × 10 × 10 cm), weight (≤1 kg), fluid flowrate (1 L/min), and canister size (0.5–1 L), among others. This research focused on developing and characterizing a functional prototype within the specified design criteria. After designing and fabricating the device, evacuation of water, blood mimicking solution, and simulated vomitus solution were assessed. In addition, a comparative analysis was carried out between the five different commercially available suction catheters by assessing fluid flow rate and obstruction resistance. The results demonstrate the first proof-of-concept characterization for a novel combat-oriented suction system and provide a basis for comparing the performance of suction systems and catheters used in airway management.

Although intravenous therapy (IV) is one of the most frequently utilized approaches for fluid delivery in modern healthcare, it is associated with some form of complication up to 40% of the time. While many complications are minor, occlusion and extravasation can prevent the delivery of a needed fluid-based intervention or cause delivery into the subdermal space, which can lead to distributed tissue damage and necrosis. To address this need, this group developed the IV patency monitoring device (IVP) to generate and analyze a small pulse wave within the IV fluid. The study hypothesis was that changes in the IV’s communication with the blood stream could be detected as an alteration in this signal. This study investigated wave characteristics generated by the IVP in a benchtop tissue phantom. Results demonstrated that wave characteristics change detectably between simulated patent communication with a simulated blood stream and states of extravasation or occlusion. Future work will focus on improved detection methods and integrating a real-time alert system, which will better prepare the IVP for clinical translation and impact.