Design and Fabrication of a New MHD Micropump for Continuous Subcutaneous Infusion to Thalassemia Major Patients

Abstract

Background: In recent decades, reducing the size of the drug delivery systems along with precise control of the amount of drug pumped, has attracted the attention of many researchers. Objectives: The slow subcutaneous infusion of the deferoxamine in thalassemia major patients during day is of vital importance either for the drug effectiveness. However, this is difficult to achieve due to the large size of the conventional infusion pumps and their high weight. Therefore, size and weight reduction of the infusion pumps are very important issues that must be well addressed. Methods: A biomedical micropump for drug solution infusion to human body based on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) concept is and designed, and its performance experimentally is investigated in this research. The key challenge in the fabrication of the micropump is its size, weight, bubble generation, and high operating voltage. Results: The present design is well responded to these problems. The final design operates with a 1.2 v without any bubble generation, while its size and weight are 20 × 40 × 50 mm3 and 90 grams, respectively. The size of the micropump is about 1/3 size of conventional micropump, while its weight is half of them. Conclusions: Therefore, the newly designed micropump has the ability to inject the drug solution to thalassemia major patients with a sufficient infusion rate during the day without disturbing them, so it can increase their quality of life and increase their life expectancy.