Intelligent Tourniquet System for Emergency Aid

• Published in: 2017 21st National Biomedical Engineering Meeting (BIYOMUT) pp. i - iv
• Main Authors: Beytar, Faruk, Budak, Erdem Inanc, Ünlu, Aytekin, Eroğul, Osman
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-11-2017
• Subjects: Blood; Extremities; Global Positioning System; GSM; Injuries; Organic light emitting diodes; Surgery
• DOI: 10.1109/BIYOMUT.2017.8478859

In case of traffic accidents, firearm injuries and explosions, it is necessary to apply a tourniquet in order to survive the injuries of serious extremity injuries and blood loss. There are a few things to consider when applying a tourniquet. If the tourniquet is not tightened enough to stop the blood loss, blood loss continues and the injured person’s life becomes dangerous. If excessive pressure is exerted, and if it is not relaxed and squeezed intermittently, it may cause gangrene in the extremity. The purpose of this study is to develop a pneumatic, intelligent tourniquet system that can successfully stop bleeding by automatically applying the necessary pressure to the proximal limb, where it is injured to stop excessive blood loss in extremity injuries. It is thought that the developed system will be widely used in ambulances, first aid kits for vehicles, emergency services for hospitals, first aid organizations, fire trucks, first aid kits for risky workplaces and many similar civilian areas. As the output of this study; an intelligent tourniquet system prototype has been produced that can be used for arm and leg, inflates with an air motor, has an advanced microcontroller that can manage many parameters, has a GPS module that can access the location of the injured person, has a RTC (Real Time Clock) that can calculate elapsed time since the start of the tourniquet, has a pressure sensor that can gage the tourniquet pressure, can display these information on the OLED screen, direct the user with the necessary instructions to apply the tourniquet correctly, and also send messages to the mobile phone via the GSM module on the collected data.