AUTOMATED APPARATUS IDENTIFYING THE EPIDURAL SPACE TO ASSIST EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA

摘要

PURPOSE: An apparatus for auto-detecting epidural space is provided to help epidural anesthesia treatment by automatically sensing pressure alteration at entering of needle into the epidural space. CONSTITUTION: The apparatus comprises a pressure detector(10) to sense pressure in a catheter connected to Tuohy needle; a low bandwidth wave circuit(11) to amplify sensing signals from the detector and to output the signals in a continuous wave form of power voltage; a circuit(12) for sensing threshold value and reverse pulse to keep a constant output voltage(Vt); a clipper circuit(13) to remove upward pulse and to output downward pulse(Vc); a pulse generation circuit(14) to output pulse signal(Va); a circuit(15) for driving an electronic shutter to close an electronic valve; an alarm generator(16) to flash a light diode; and a display circuit(17) to display 10 light diodes depending on degree of output voltage(Vp) of the low bandwidth wave circuit(11).