IP Requirement: Medical University of South Carolina IP
Experience Requirement:
– Mechanical Design
– Rapid Prototyping
– Potentially electrical and software engineering
Problem Description
The problem:
Button battery ingestion is an unusual but potentially deadly injury in children accounting for 3,500 hospital encounters every year in the US but severe injury can have a 45-70% mortality rate. While these batteries seem innocuous, they can cause an exceptional amount of damage to the pediatric esophagus with coagulative necrosis occurring within 15 minutes of contact. Since time in the esophagus is equal to tissue damage, the rapidity with which the batteries are neutralized and removed is of utmost importance.
Current state:
Button battery ingestion constitutes a surgical emergency and once identified children are rapidly taken to the operating room for removal via endoscopy. However, rapid evaluation and treatment for these patients can only occur at a tertiary referral children’s hospital that has access to the full complement of pediatric surgical care (pediatric surgeon, endoscopy, interventional cardiology, etc.). This leaves children who live > 30 minutes from a children’s hospital (>66% of all children) at risk for ongoing injury while transfer of care to a tertiary referral children’s hospital is arranged.
The question:
How can we mitigate ongoing esophageal tissue injury in a low-resource setting while children are waiting for transfer to a higher level of care?
