Breathe allows doctors to measure the pressure and flow rates of the aspiration process and protect against excessive pressures that can cause a failed procedure.

A new digital device from Cambridge Consultants, Breathe, can help doctors and nurses provide more detailed analysis while treated a spontaneous collapsed lung.

Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax (PSP) happens after a tear or hole in the wall of the lung allows gas to enter the chest and become trapped. It occurs mainly in tall, thin, young men, and hospitals faces two or three cases every week.

Breathe allows doctors to measure the pressure and flow rates of the aspiration process and protect against excessive pressures that can cause a failed procedure.

“The Breathe device, and the automatic aspiration process it enables, both address a glaring inefficiency in the Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax treatment paradigm.  By transforming a doctor from a syringe puller to an active process manager, Cambridge Consultants has made more intelligent the process of aspiration for PSP,” said Andrew Gow, senior engineer of medical technology at Cambridge Consultants. 

Automatic aspiration creates a more dynamic patient treatment process because doctors are working with accurate, real-time data. This can help doctors make more educated decisions about patient treatment. Breathe can also provide researchers with more data to work with when studying this condition.

“Not only does automation of the process using the proposed Breathe device have the potential to make it far easier to aspirate patients than the existing syringe manual method, it might also manage the process better by providing improved information to the physician,” said Dr. Stefan Marciniak, MRC clinician scientist and honorary consultants physician. “Together, these two improvements may help us meet our patient care guidelines of faster and safer treatment.”

Aspiration is the process of removing fluid or gases from the body with a suction device, and the current procedure for collapsed lungs is a laborious manual activity. The default approach to treating major cases of PSP is thoracentesis or pleural drainage insertion, where one inserts a chest drain into the body. Typically, a doctor or nurse repeatedly pushes and pulls a syringe, manipulating a three-way valve attached to a cannula through the chest wall. 

For more information visit www.cambridgeconsultants.com.