Case Discussion Related To Transducer Protectors of Dialysis Machine By Dr Jigar Shrimali
A transducer is a device in the machine that turns air pressure into an electronic signal.
Moisture will harm electronics. A transducer protector is a cap with a filter that goes between blood in the tubing and each transducer to keep it dry. Since dry transducers are so vital, there may be both external protectors—as part of the blood tubing set—and internal protectors as a backup.
External transducer protectors connect to the machine’s venous and/or arterial pressure ports via a small tubing segment on top of the drip chamber. Transducer port lines have a small line clamp in the middle. The protectors connect to the ends of these lines, and are the link between the machine and the drip chambers.
Membrane filters with a small pore size (0.2 microns) inside transducer protectors are hydrophobic (water repellent), so blood cannot pass all the way through. If the filters get wet, they prevent air flow.
For this reason, wet or clamped transducer protectors can cause pressure reading errors and TMP problems. A loose or damaged transducer protector on a pre-pump arterial drip chamber port could let air into the bloodlines, too. The biggest risk of wet transducer protectors is infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tips to reduce this risk. If transducer protectors become wet, Change them right away.
Inspect the machine side of the protector for contamination or wetting.
Have the machine’s internal transducer protector inspected or replaced by a qualified technician.
Clean and disinfect the path between the external and internal transducer protectors if fluid breaks through the external transducer protector.
Blood spillage inside dialysis machine
Here we can see spillage of blood inside of machine due to defect in internal transducer connection. This could have been prevented if regular check related to transducer protectors was done.
To understand it further we can see that internal transducer protector is attached inner side of transducer to avoid spillage of blood. We can see it here.
sometimes connection of internal transducer become loose and to prevent dissection, we can tie it.
Sometimes we can see in some machine venous pressure monitoring is not working for this even though transducers and protectors are there. In which we need to check pressure transmission line is connected well or not.
Source:TEXTBOOK OF DIALYSIS THERAPY
Article Courtesy – Dr. Jigar Shrimali
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