Sp23 Team Cuffsquad

Project Description:

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 in 300 employees in the healthcare industry sustain an injury due to slips, trips, and falls that result in lost workdays. This incidence rate is 90% greater than the average rate for other private industries. This is primarily due to clutter from bulky machines and equipment in the operating room, one of which is the pneumatic tourniquet. A pneumatic tourniquet contains two components, a cuff that wraps around a person’s extremity and a device to inflate the cuff. The inflation and cuff mechanism are similar to a blood pressure reading, only at a higher, sustained pressure. Inflating the cuff to a high enough pressure occludes blood flow in the limb, creating a bloodless surgical field during the operation. Currently, pneumatic tourniquet inflation devices are large, bulky machines that have excessive cords and cables which can create tripping hazards for nurses and surgeons. Our team has taken one step towards the ultimate goal of a cordless operating room by reimagining the pneumatic tourniquet device. Our device, the NEW-matic tourniquet, is a battery-powered version of existing pneumatic tourniquet devices that aims to provide equivalent functionality as predicate devices while also being more space efficient. During device testing, we found our device could hit top pressure, sustain pressure through monitoring and reinflating, rapidly inflate and deflate, and last for over four hours off a single battery with a theoretical use of up to 13 hours. The NEW-matic tourniquet aims to provide a compact, robust alternative to existing pneumatic tourniquet devices, potentially reducing the risk of tripping hazards in the operating room and increasing efficiency across hospitals nationwide.