Pediatrics

Basic Principles

In order to produce a device that continuously monitors endotracheal tube position while requiring little to no outside input, we created a three part system. An adhesive sensor patch placed on the throat of a neonate acts as the detector of the endotracheal tube, a magnet embedded in the endotracheal tube will be the indicator or the target for the detector to will respond to, and an LED panel will output the results visually for the user to interpret.

The first component of this system is the adhesive patch consisting of a compacted circuit comprising of five Hall Effect sensors, which sense a change in magnetic field and output a voltage accordingly, acting as switches. When a magnetic field is sensed, these sensors create a closed circuit, outputting a voltage to an external source. This source can be varied depending on the needs of the application; in this device each sensor is connected to its own LED. For the purposes of this device, these sensors need to be sensitive enough to detect the magnetic field produced by the magnets through the skin and cartilage between the magnets in the endotracheal tube and the adhesive patch. They also need to be small enough to be encased in an adhesive patch that is compact so that it fits on the throat of the neonate.

The second component of this system is an endotracheal tube with a magnet embedded in the tip. The small neodymium magnets produce a magnetic field strong enough to penetrate the fragile skin and cartilage of the trachea and throat. This field then interacts with the Hall Effect sensors in the adhesive patch, tripping the switches and closing the circuit. Four thin magnets will be embedded into the lining of the endotracheal tube creating a magnetic field on all sides of the tube, which ensures that the tube can be detected whichever way it is place and turning of the tube does not cause a false positive result from our sensor. Solvent bonding will be used to cement these magnets in...