Robotic Intubation Prototype "GuideIN Tube" Automatically Identifies lungs Using An Infrared Source And Navigates Toward It

Students designed a self-guided robotic intubation device "GuideIN Tube" that crawls to the lungs in difficult situations

When ill patients find it difficult to breath on their own, then a plastic tube is placed into the lungs. This process maintains a clear air passage to the lungs, and is known as intubation. The current procedure requires the physician to see the trachea and choose between two very similar holes, one leading to the lungs, the other to the stomach. Failure to identify the correct hole can lead to patient death. Worse, intubation sometimes has to be carried out in the field, during military operations, or on patients that have blood or liquids obstructing the way.

In order to make it safer and easier, students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Biodesign program have created a robotic intubation device called GuideIN Tube, that takes some of the guesswork out of the procedure. This device automatically identifies the lungs using an infrared source and navigates toward it. The device was successfully tested on cadavers at the Hadassah Medical Center, and clinical trials will begin as soon as next year.

That infrared light source is placeed against the skin on the outside of the patient’s trachea. Detectors at the end of the GuideIN Tube “see” that light shining through on the inside of the trachea, and direct the tube’s flexible probe-like guiding element to point in its direction. Forward momentum of the tube is provided by hand, but it steers itself.

The GuideIN Tube's flexible guiding element

“I strongly believe that GuideIn Tube represents the future of intubation,” said Dr. Elchanan Fried, director of the general intensive care unit in Hadassah Medical Center, and the group’s clinical expert. The device targets a $3 billion market, which is expected to increase by 5% annually. “We really thought about the paramedic in the field”, said Itai Hayut, the leading engineering student on the project. “We wanted something simple and compact that they could trust without fail. I think we hit it on all marks.”

Other students in the group include Tommy Weiss-Sadan, a biology graduate student, as well as Sarah Horwitz and Ariel Shrem who are completing their MBA degrees.

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Write by: RC - Friday, August 9, 2013