Mekanisk sårrengöringsapparatur för vården : En studie i sköljningsoptimering

Sammanfattning: ”Mechanical debridment – A studie in irrigation optimization” is a final thesis which was executed by Fredrick Ekman, in close collaboration with the other group member Mikael Johansson, during the spring 2012. The thesis was carried out through Karlstad University Faculty of Technology and Science in the study program of Innovation and Design Engineering (180 ECTS credits). The client of the project was Medilink AB located in Lindesberg, and the contact person was Nils-Erik Söderström, Chief Executive Officer. The project was supervised by lecturer, Lennart Wihk, and examined by lecturer and professor Fredrik Thuvander at Karlstad University. Medilink AB´s main area is the development and sales of medical devices and assistive technology. The Chief Executive Officer, Nils-Erik Söderström have recieved indications from several people in health care services that a wound irrigation tool would be highly desirable, because of the questionable effectiveness of the methods used today. A preliminary study was contucted collectively, with group member Mikael Johansson. This study focused on wounds in general, and different methods used for wound cleansing, to get the information needed to indicate the problem areas. In the subsequent research phase which was carried out separately without Mikael Johansson, the focus was concentrated on optimal wound irrigation pressures, scattering angle and water hit image in general and also a how to minimize the water scatter which is a negative byproduct in wound irrigation. This was conducted with interviews, literature studies and field studies. Literature studies and tests were conducted in order to obtain information about optimal characteristics in terms of scattering angle, hit image and pressure. Different idea generation methods were carried out in order to produce different ideas on how to minimize water scatter, which resulted in three different concepts which was evaluated through concept evaluation methods until only one concept was left. The concept which was chosen for further development also underwent a final test to evaluate three different shapes within the concept. The results from the optimal irrigation pressure research, scattering angle and hit image tests, and last but not least the results from the water scatter minimizing tests where all put together to form a final concept and in the end, a visualized Computer Aided Design model.