Bench Validation of a Handcrafted Prototype Catheter for Intra‐gastric Pressure Monitoring

Abstract

Background Abdominal compartment syndrome is a sustained intra‐abdominal pressure (IAP) >20 mm Hg associated with new organ dysfunction. In order to prevent its development and related complications, IAP monitoring should be performed in patients with risk factors. Although techniques for its monitoring have been developed, they are of high cost and not always available in low‐ and lower–middle‐income countries. Therefore, we aim to develop and validate in a bench model a handcrafted catheter to be used as an alternative method to measure the intra‐gastric pressure (IGP) as a surrogate of the IAP. Methods We used an acrylic water container as a model of the abdomen and four handcrafted catheters made of a 16 Fr Levin tube with a globe finger tied with silk in the distal end, inflated with 1 cm of air. They were placed on the bottom of the container where the water pressure was directly measured as a gold standard. The agreement between the two measures was assessed with the Bland–Altman method. Results We performed 120 simultaneous measures. The mean pressure difference was 0.218 (95% CI 0.074 to 0.363). Conclusions The handcrafted prototype catheter and the direct measure were highly correlated. The new catheter is a reliable and reproducible tool for pressure monitoring. However, before it can be used in the clinical setting for IAP monitoring, validation in human models in a real clinical setting needs to be performed.

Abdominal Compartment Syndrome in Acute Pancreatitis: A Narrative Review

“…In patients with neurogenic bladder or benign prostatic hypertrophy, the use of bladder pressures is contraindicated. Intragastric measurement may be a viable alternative to intravesical measurement, allowing for continuous monitoring [63,64]. When measuring IAP intermittently, WSACS (https://www.wsacs.org) recommends using the bladder, with a maximum instillation volume of 25 mL of sterile saline, followed by measurement at end-expiration in the complete supine position after ensuring that abdominal muscle contractions are absent and with the transducer zeroed at the level of the mid-axillary line.…”

Continuous Intra-Gastral Monitoring of Intra-Abdominal Pressure in Critically ill Children – A Validation Study

“…Comparable container models have been described earlier [9,11,17]. For details regarding the in-vitro experimental set-up, refer to ESM- Fig.…”