IIT-Kanpur hands over life-saving device to SGPGI

KANPUR : The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) handed over a highly sophisticated life-saving device to the SGPGI (Lucknow) in a ceremony held on the campus here on Tuesday.

The scientists at the Smart Materials Structures and Systems (SMSS) Lab at IIT-K have developed an inexpensive and portable device for guiding the endotracheal tube inside the human trachea, a prerequisite for the safe administration of general anaesthesia in any emergency or intensive care units. The IIT-K has also filed a patent application for the device developed by Aman Garg under the supervision of Prof Bishakh Bhattacharya of department of mechanical engineering, IIT Kanpur. The possibility of CO2 based guidance was first suggested by Prof Dr Anil Agarwal and Sujeet Gautam from SGPGI, Lucknow .

This device developed by the SMSS Lab is particularly helpful as many a times direct laryngoscopy cannot be performed on account of reduced mouth opening, trismus (lock jaw), trauma or growth in the upper airway. Fibre optic bronchoscopy is of great help in such a situation according to the release issued by the institute. This device uses non-dispersive infrared carbon dioxide sensing inside the intubation pathway for guiding the ET tube inside the trachea. The device attaches to the video bronchoscope as an auxiliary device and continuously monitors the end-tidal carbon dioxide concentration (ETCO2) in the exhaled breath of the patient by determining and comparing the variation in the ETCO2 concentration in the form of a gradient.