Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part H, Journal of engineering in medicine
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Proc Inst Mech Eng H · Nov 2011
Case ReportsSimultaneous repair of two large cranial defects using rapid prototyping and custom computer-designed titanium plates: a case report.
Custom titanium cranioplasty plates, manufactured by a variety of techniques, have been used to repair a range of cranial defects. The authors present a case where two relatively large, adjacent cranial defects were repaired by custom computer-designed titanium plates. The two plates were designed and fabricated simultaneously using a unique methodology. ⋯ The cranioplasty procedure to implant both titanium cranial plates was performed efficiently with no intra-operative complications. Intra-operatively, an excellent fit was achieved. The careful planning of the plates enhanced the relative ease with which the cranial defects were repaired with an excellent cosmetic outcome.
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Proc Inst Mech Eng H · Nov 2011
Development and in vitro evaluation of a flow-adjustable elastic drug infusion pump.
Passive-type drug infusion pumps have several advantages over active-type pumps including a simple drug chamber structure and relatively high operational stability. However, conventional passive-type infusion pumps also have several limitations compared to active ejection pumps, such as a fixed flowrate and monotonic flow pattern. To enhance the clinical feasibility of using passive-type drug infusion pumps, flow readjustment and flow regulation abilities are needed. ⋯ Experiments on the proposed system resulted in actual injection rates of 0.49 +/- 0.03 (mean +/- standard deviation), 0.98 +/- 0.03, 1.49 +/- 0.04, and 1.99 +/- 0.03 ml/h when the target injection rate was set to 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 ml/h, respectively. During the entire period of operation from the fully filled state to the totally empty state, an inner-chamber pressure of >100 mmHg was maintained, which shows that the proposed infusion pump can stably maintain its target flowrate as the amount of drug remaining to be injected decreases. It appears that the proposed drug infusion pump can be applied to a wide variety of patient treatments that require short-term, accurate, and stable drug delivery.