Project Description: 

Clinicians currently lack a universal, noninvasive, and effective method of securing cannula tubes for ECMO patients. ECMO is the process of oxygenating a person’s blood outside the body by bypassing the lungs and requires tubes to be inserted via the jugular vein and femoral vein. The current method for securing the cannula tube requires suturing the tube down to the patient’s skin which is ineffective at preventing dislodgement and increases the risk of infection. Dislodgement of the cannula tube can lead a person to bleed out within 2 minutes, so in the words of our Emory advisor, there is no plan B only plan A. In addition, due to COVID 19 the patients on ECMO have doubled making this problem more pressing than ever before. Our team worked to create a simple, non-invasive, and universal cannula securement device. The securement device is composed of a collar with a base plate attached along the side of the head with a strap attached at the top of the plate which wraps around the head. The current iteration of the suture-less cannula collar consists of a polyethylene foam and vinyl collar that wraps around the patient’s neck right above the cannula insertion site.