Life-Saving Medical Monitoring Equipment
Life-Saving Medical Monitoring Equipment
Where would our hospitals be without these life-saving technology? Even with the lack of medical staff, more people are being saved from critical and life-threatening situations with the aid of modern medical monitoring equipment. It plays a vital role not only in patient recovery but also in emergencies. In TV medical dramas we see scenes of a patient who recovers after receiving a shock from a defibrillator, and how often do we hear that relief-inducing beeping sound being emitted by a heart monitor? These high-tech medical equipment provide medical practitioners life saving capabilities during emergencies.
Patient monitors display vital signs via CRT or LCD screens. Medical professionals can then read the patient’s heart rate, pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rates. This kind of technology give patients bedside care especially for critically sick or injured individuals. Nowadays there are portable versions which allow patient monitoring in ambulances and small clinics. There are also special patient monitoring machines such as EEG (Electroencephalography) , ECG (Electrocardiograph), oscilloscopes, oximeters and ventilators.
Technology today has allowed some of these monitors to be used outside of hospitals and into our homes. For example, there are digital blood pressure monitors that can be used by anyone to measure their blood pressure (BP) levels. The equipment can be bought over the counter and used without the need for a trained professional. It has become very useful for people with high blood pressure who want to be informed of their BP reading often without going to a nearby clinic or hospital.
Defibrillators are used during life threatening cardiac arrhythmia or ventricular tachycardia where there is no pulse. The defibrillator delivers a therapeutic dose of electrical energy that restabilizes the body and allows natural cardiac sinus rhythm.
The defibrillation technique was first demonstrated by Jean-Louis Prévost and Frederic Batelli from the University of Switzerland in 1899. Today, defibrillators are common medical equipment and come in portable varieties which are used in ambulances or carried by emergency rescue teams. Hewlett-Packard, Welch Allyn, GE and Phillips are some of the more common manufacturers of defibrillators.
Anesthesia monitors provide medical practitioners effortless patient monitoring while undergoing surgery. This gives the anesthesiologist and other medical staff vital information of the patient providing easier assessment and care. Devices like this also have an alarm system for different parameters and can be adjusted according to patient needs. A popular anesthesia machine is the Drager 3200 Anesthesia Monitor. It is a 5-agent anesthesia monitor with Sp02 and NIBP biomedically certified.
Intravenous (IV) pumps are used to pump fluids into a patient via catheter. This is used to deliver antibiotics, medicine, pain medication and even nutrients. It is widely used for health-care at home, in clinics, and in health-care facilities for the aged. It is good to note that cell phones, and other digital handheld devices might interfere with an IV pump’s signal.
Polysomnographs are used to study sleep and their connection to sleep-related medical issues. The PSG records the biophysical changes that occur in the body during sleep. It detects eye movement, brain function and skeletal muscle activation and heart rhythms while a person sleeps. This is helpful for people who are suffering from daytime fatigue and sleeplessness.
All in all medical monitoring equipments have come a long way since they were first introduced. No longer are the equipment bulky and too complicated to use. Nowadays, they are more portable, more user-friendly and even more powerful than its predecessors.