A Handy Preterm Infant Incubator for Providing Intensive Care: Simulation, 3D Printed Prototype, and Evaluation

Abstract

Preterm infants encounter an abrupt delivery before their complete maturity during the third trimester of pregnancy. Polls anticipate an increase in the rates of preterm infants for 2025, especially in middle- and low-income countries. Despite the abundance of intensive care methods for preterm infants, such as, but not limited to, commercial, transport, embrace warmer, radiant warmer, and Kangaroo Mother Care methods, they are either expensive, lack the most essential requirements or specifications, or lack the maternal-preterm bond. This drove us to carry this original research and innovative idea of developing a new 3D printed prototype of a Handy preterm infant incubator. We aim to provide the most indispensable intensive care with the lowest cost, to bestow low-income countries with the Handy incubator's care, preserve the maternal -preterm's bond, and diminish the rate of mortality. Biomedical features, electronics, and biocompatible materials were utilized. The design was simulated, the prototype was 3D printed, and the outcomes were tested and evaluated. Simulation results showed the best fit for the Handy incubator's components. Experimental results showed the 3D-printed prototype and the time elapsed to obtain it. Evaluation results revealed that the overall performance of Kangaroo Mother Care and the embrace warmer was 75 ± 1.4% and 66.7 ± 1.5%, respectively, while the overall performance of our Handy incubator was 91.7 ± 1.6%, thereby our cost-effective Handy incubator surpassed existing intensive care methods. The future step is associating the Handy incubator with more specifications and advancements.

Applications of 3D printing in critical care medicine: A scoping review

“…67–69 Zaylaa and colleagues created an incubator for preterm infants by printing parts of the incubator then incorporating circuity and a heating unit. 70 The 3D-printed incubator achieved higher scores in all measures compared with other incubation methods, including commercial incubators. 70…”

“…70 The 3D-printed incubator achieved higher scores in all measures compared with other incubation methods, including commercial incubators. 70…”

“…There were four studies that did not involve any of the themes but met the inclusion criteria. 67–70 Three studies used 3D printing to create anatomical models for the purpose of testing devices or to complete physiological studies, without the need to involve live patients. 67–69 Zaylaa and colleagues created an incubator for preterm infants by printing parts of the incubator then incorporating circuity and a heating unit.…”

Low-cost and open-source neonatal incubator operated by an Arduino microcontroller

“…There are some low-cost approaches for incubators that perform similar functions as the current device, such as the ones described by Tran et a. [14] , Zaylaa et al [15] or Fong et al [16] , but the neonatal incubator presented herein has a reduced cost as well as additional features (such as weight monitoring or an external alarm system), and an updated design with current materials found at e-commerce platforms such as Amazon or AliExpress. In this way, the incubator can be replicated and utilized by potential users in LMICs just by following the detailed instructions we provide in this work.…”

Challenges posed by infant incubators and their potential mitigation

“…Babies born before 37 gestational weeks are labelled preterm births 1 . As per World Health Organisation (WHO) 2019 data, around 1 million preterm babies die annually due to unavailability of mother's womb like environment in extra-uterine life 2,3 . Categories of gestational age are shown in Table 1.…”