Infusion pumps are life-saving medical devices used by millions of healthcare professionals to deliver fluids, such as nutrients and medications, into a patient’s body in controlled amounts.
The pump is also useful for giving blood transfusions and delivering both short- and long-term doses of medication. They are frequently used in hospitals and assisted living facilities to give chemotherapy medications, painkillers, or antibiotics. Patients unable to eat on their own are also fed by infusion pumps in a flexible tubing that attaches the pump to the patient’s vein or artery under regulated conditions.
An infusion pump, when used by a skilled operator, has benefits over manual administration, including accurate rate and duration programming and tiny volume delivery. Nutrients and pharmaceuticals such as insulin, antibiotics, chemotherapeutic treatments, and analgesics can be administered via infusion pumps.
Large volume, syringe, insulin, elastomeric, enteral, and patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps are only a few of the several kinds of infusion pumps available. Some are primarily made to be used immobile beside a patient’s bedside. Others are made to be worn or portable and are referred to as ambulatory infusion pumps.
The safety of patients can be greatly impacted by infusion pump malfunctions hence many pumps have safety mechanisms built in to notify users when an issue arises, like operator alerts or alarms. Modern models frequently employ smart pumps, which notify users when parameters are set beyond safety limits or when there is a chance of negative drug interactions.
When used to administer intramuscular injections of nutrition or drugs, these pumps raise standards of care by ensuring greater precision and uniformity while being utilised for pain management. Infusion pumps are very important to health facilities as it can be used primarily used to administer medications when there is no other way of administering medication or food to a patient.
