Development and Performance Evaluation of a Foot-Operated Fluid Aspirator

Abstract

Fluid aspiration is a common procedure undertaken during emergency situations in hospitals to remove airway blockages in patients. This activity is capable of increasing the risk of transmission of infections from patients to physicians or vice versa. Prevention or significant reduction of such infections is necessary. The goal of this paper is to develop and evaluate a foot activated fluid aspirator. The proposed device was designed using Autodesk Inventor Software. The device was designed and fabricated largely from locally available materials including plane sheets of metal, bacteria filter, two canister (waste bottle), 3 meter length tubing, pressure regulator control knob, AC power switch, 2 horse power compressor motors, 220V  contactor relay switch, air flow adaptor, four pieces of castor (rollers), four  cans of spray paint (white and black), one full length plywood (Formica), two yards of furniture mat, pressure gauge, Light Emitting Diodes (red and orange), canister hanger, window net (hard),13 amps AC plug, 10 µf AC capacitor, and one diathermy pedal switch. The fluid aspirator is dual powered and activated using a one-way switch and a single mechanical pedal switch. Evaluation of the device functionality returned a suction time of 2.02 ± 0.23 s compared to a suction time of 2.21 ± 0.22 s obtained from a functional standard commercially available fluid aspirator and with a p-value of 0.3429 indicating no statistically significant difference between the two suction times. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the device in absorbing both fluids at specific pressures. Therefore, the device could be immensely beneficial for use in hospitals.