Health devices
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General-purpose infusion pumps deliver liquid medications and intravenous (i.v.) fluids to patients through i.v. or epidural routes at specified flows. They are most often used when greater accuracy or higher flows are needed than can be provided by a manually adjusted gravity administration set. In this Evaluation (which updates our October 2002 study), we present our findings for two newly evaluated pumps: the B. ⋯ The Outlook 200 is the first general-purpose infusion pump to offer a new type of safety feature: an automated programming system. This system scans bar-coded labels on i.v. fluid containers and on patient (and sometimes clinician) identification and automatically programs this information into the pump. Unfortunately, the 200's system has not yet been successfully implemented in a clinical setting.
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The recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) raises questions about the appropriate infection control measures to use when conducting maintenance procedures on medical devices that may have been exposed to the SARS virus--that is, devices that have been used on, or located in the same room as, a patient with (or suspected to have) SARS. Although there is considerable information and guidance available on many aspects of SARS, very little exists on this particular topic. What's more, we have found significant differences in the perspectives and recommendations of some of the experts on the subject. ⋯ To derive our recommendations, we reviewed the material posted on the Web sites of the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), along with other information sources; we also discussed issues related to equipment use and servicing with experts outside ECRI.
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Patients suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) sometimes require mechanical ventilation. This raises safety concerns about the SARS virus being carried by droplets that exit from the exhalation limb of the ventilator. ECRI recommends that breathing-circuit filters be incorporated in the exhalation limb of any ventilator used on a patient with SARS. In this article, we review the issues behind our recommendations and describe steps hospitals can take to prevent any adverse effects on ventilation.