New monitoring tool offers improved care for preemies

PREMATURELY born infants need to maintain precise blood oxygen levels in order to avoid permanent damage to the brain and other organs. Until recently, however, there has been no way to accurately monitor of oxygenation in preemies. Today, a real-time monitoring system developed by Nils Holmström and Kenneth Danehorn is one possible solution, which could help reduce complications from dangerous blood-oxygen levels by 30 to 50 percent.

 

Those who survive blood oxygen deficiency in many cases suffer permanent damage to organs. Oxygenation at too high a level, on the other hand, can cause damage to the retina, and blindness.

 

The technology continuously measures the dissolved oxygen in neonatal blood. Developed at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the system consists of an umbilical catheter with an electrochemical sensor with metal surfaces that react to the oxygen content in blood. This chemical reaction is produced via electrical pulses generated by an electronic unit, which can be used for a maximum of 10 days at a time.

 

Danehorn and Holmström formed the company, Neosense Technology AB, with Lars Åke Brodin, a professor of medical engineering at KTH, with the hope of bringing their technology to market by 2018. 

 

"When with severe inflammation of the stomach and intestines, infection and impaired lung function, bad blood oxygen control can be deadly," Danehorn said. "Our ambition is to reduce the complications as a result of insufficient oxygen control by 30 to 50 percent."

 

"If we can contribute to better monitoring and stabilisation of oxygenation supply, we hope to significantly reduce both mortality and permanent damage," he added.

 

In the longer term, the Neosense technology could also be used for adults in intensive care and in cardiac and vascular surgery.