Intelligent Alarm System of Mechanical Ventilation: Innovative Pressure Alarm for Immediate Clinical Management

The alarm system of mechanical ventilator is important to alert caregiver to perform specific procedure to keep patient away from complication. However, the conventional alarm signals are badly designed and always non-specific which can not provide clear information for caregiver to make decision immediately. Therefore, the intelligent alarm system that we try to develop is to provide clear information from analyzing more sophisticated data from ventilator to help caregiver aware the clinical condition and perform the appropriate procedure at the right moment. The high pressure alarm which is one of the most frequent alarm shooting in the intensive care unit (ICU), includes the warning of airway narrowing, sputum impaction, poor lung compliance and more critical conditions. We used simulated condition to test the intelligent alarm system we develop which staff needs immediate management including alert of sputum suction, tubing disconnection and leakage in the mechanical ventilation. The result presents the suction alarm occurs when Ppeak increase, Rexp increase and Fexp decrease in the mechanical ventilation model after simulated sputum injection. The low airway leak alarm occurs when end-PEEP value less than initial PEEP setting. The larger airway leak alarm occurs when both PEEP value and expiratory tidal volume down to zero in the mechanical ventilation. It suggests that intelligent system can provide alarm decision and contribute patient safety.