IIT students develop intubation boxes for COVID-19 patients with breathing problems

Students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have developed low-cost intubation boxes for dealing with COVID-19 patients facing breathing issues and requiring assistance in the form of endotracheal intubation.

Intubation is the process of inserting a tube, called an endotracheal tube (ET), through the mouth and then into the airway. It is done so that a patient can be placed on a ventilator to assist with breathing during anaesthesia, sedation or severe illness.

The device developed by IIT Guwahati functions as an aerosol obstruction box which can be placed atop the patient's bed on the head-side, limiting the flow of virus-laden droplets from the patient to the doctor, especially during the process of intubation.

According to the team, the primary prototype of the design has been completed at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the box is currently being reviewed at major COVID-19 care centres including at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). It will be available at much cheaper price than the ones available at present.

"Amid the dearth of PPE such as Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PARPs) and well-sealed face masks, it becomes essential to complement the use of makeshift acrylic face shields, N95 masks and surgical respirators, with a proper obstruction for aerosol spewed via the mouth and nose of the patient. The intubation box allows having this protection in place by limiting the infection within the box's volume around the patient," Umang Mathur, a B.Tech student at the Department of Bioscience, told PTI
"We have started a crowd funding campaign in order to manufacture these boxes and provide them to government hospitals for free. The campaign raised a record INR 50,000 within six hours of launching," Sanchit said