Ligature-Resistant Medical Tubing
Application
Ligature resistant medical tubing for use in institutional facilities for the safe administration of IV medicine.
Key Benefits
- Reduces financial burden associated with constant supervision of psychiatric, suicidal, or incarcerated patients needing IV administrations.
- Minimizes risk of psychiatric patients utilizing medical tubing for harmful purposes.
Market Summary
Psychiatric patients with co-morbidities are especially expensive to care for because they have a high demand for individual staff supervision and treatment management. Supervision is required because there is currently no designed safety feature to prevent patients from using medical tubing as a ligature. The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) reports that approximately 70% of hospital inpatient suicides occurred during psychiatric treatment. Hanging was the most common method of inpatient suicide. There are currently no ligature tubing technologies in this field.
Technical Summary
Dr. Skoller worked with Georgia Tech students to develop ligature resistant tubing for the safe administration of IV medicine. This system includes medical tubing encased in rigid joints, limiting its flexibility to a bend of no more than 70 degrees. This feature significantly reduces the risk of strangulation by ligature. The invention additionally limits the potential for disassembly by utilizing durable construction materials in a design without detachable components. Ultimately, these features could eliminate the need for constant one-to-one monitoring of psychiatric patients receiving IV administration in a clinical setting. This medical tubing design may serve as a replacement for traditional tubing systems.
Developmental Stage
A prototype has been developed.
Patent Information
| App Type |
Country |
Serial No. |
Patent No. |
File Date |
Issued Date |
Patent Status |
| Utility (parent) |
United States |
16/953,697 |
|
11/20/2020 |
|
Pending |
|
|