NG Flusher
Nasogastric tube tip redesigned to reduce clogging by a factor of 4.
Nasogastric tubes are one of the most ubiquitous medical devices used in urgent and intensive care situations. Most commonly used to evacuate the stomach during cases of small bowel obstruction and surgical operations, the NG tube is prone to clogging. When the tube fails it must be repaired or replaced (which is reported to be the most painful procedure performed in emergency departments [1]).
We designed and builta new helical slit tip for the nasogastric (NG) tube to reduce clogging, as well as an accompanying modular in-line flusher to simplify flow restoration to a clogged tube. A detailed analysis of nasogastric tube failure in an ex vivo model was performed. The helical tip clogged 4 times less than the current state of the art nasogastric tube. Use of the redesigned NG tube and modular in-line flusher will reduce the need to troubleshoot and replace NG tubes, saving care providers’ time, reducing hospital costs, and reducing patient discomfort.
The inline flusher is an inexpensive device which combines into one push the many steps a caregiver usually takes to unclog the tube via flushing, with no disconnections required. It is modular and can be added to any NG tube when complications are expected. With one pump the flusher restores the NG tube
The flushing device normally does not interfere with the NG tube. When the ergonomic flusher is pumped, the vacuum is blocked, a flush is sent to unclog the tube, the vacuum is reconnected, and the flusher is refilled. All in one go
For complete information see:
- Ankrum, J.A., et al., Nasogastric Tube Design to Reduce Clogging and Simplify Flushing. Transactions of the ASME-W-Journal of Medical Devices, 2011. 5(2): p. 27510.
- Ankrum, J.A, et al., Medical aspiration apparatus., U.S. Patent Application 13/983,789.