Design of an intraosseous infusion system

To reduce the emergency treatment time of shock victims, resuscitation fluids can be infused into a patient via their sternum rather than through a peripheral vein. Successful use of this method requires manual infusion because available medical equipment is not capable of infusing the preferred resuscitation fluids into the sternum at the required flow rates. This article describes the process and results of the design of a high pressure infusion system specifically intended for automating emergency sternal infusions. Infusion requirements for the human sternum were clearly defined, and were followed by the development and evaluation of many infusion system ideas, including numerous commercially available pump designs. The options were narrowed down to five schemes that were studied in depth. Finally, two schemes were picked, a compressed gas bag-within-a-bag design and a peristaltic design.