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Types of pump

There are two basic classes of pumps. Large volume pumps can pump nutrient solutions large enough to feed a patient. Small-volume pumps infuse hormones, such as insulin, or other medicines, such as opiates.

Within these classes, some pumps are designed to be portable, others are designed to be used in a hospital, and there are special systems for charity and battlefield use.

Large-volume pumps usually use some form of peristaltic pump. Classically, they use computer-controlled rollers compressing a silicone-rubber tube through which the medicine flows. Another common form is a set of fingers that press on the tube in sequence.

Small-volume pumps usually use a computer-controlled motor turning a screw that pushes the plunger on a syringe.

The classic medical improvisation for an infusion pump is to place a blood pressure cuff around a bag of fluid. The battlefield equivalent is to place the bag under the patient. The pressure on the bag sets the infusion pressure. The pressure can actually be read-out at the cuff's indicator. The problem is that the flow varies dramatically with the patient's blood pressure (or weight), and the needed pressure varies with the administration route, making this quite risky for use by an untrained person. Pressures into a vein are ususally less than 8 lbf/in² (55 kPa. Epidural and subcutaneous pressures are usually less than 18 lbf/in² (125 kPa).

Places that must provide the least-expensive care often use pressurized infusion systems. One common system has a purpose-designed plastic "pressure bottle" pressurized with a large disposable plastic syringe. A combined flow restrictor, air filter and drip chamber helps a nurse set the flow. The parts are reusable, mass-produced sterile plastic, and can be produced by the same machines that make plastic soft-drink bottles and caps. A pressure bottle, restrictor and chamber requires more nursing attention than electronically-controlled pumps. In the areas where these are used, nurses are often volunteers, or very inexpensive.

The restrictor and high pressure helps control the flow better than the improvised schemes because the high pressure through the small restrictor orifice reduces the variation of flow caused by patients' blood pressures.

An air filter is an essential safety device in a pressure infusor, to keep air out of the patients' veins: doctors estimate that 0.55 cm³ of air per kilogram of body weight is enough to kill (200-300 cm³ for adults) by filling the patient's heart. Small bubbles could cause harm in arteries, but in the veins they pass through the heart and leave in the patients' lungs. The air filter is just a membrane that passes gas but not fluid or pathogens. When an large air bubble reaches it, it bleeds off.

Some of the smallest infusion pumps use osmotic power. Basically, a bag of salt solution absorbs water through a membrane, swelling its volume. The bag presses medicine out. The rate is precisely controlled by the salt concentrations and pump volume. Osmotic pumps are usually recharged with a syringe.

Spring-powered clockwork infusion pumps have been developed, and are sometimes still used in veterinary work and for ambulatory small-volume pumps. They generally have one spring to power the infusion, and another for the alarm bell when the infusion completes.

Battlefields often have a need to perfuse large amounts of fluid quickly, with dramatically changing blood pressures and patient condition. Specialized infusion pumps have been designed for this purpose, although they have not been deployed.

Many infusion pumps are controlled by a small embedded system. They are carefully designed so that no single cause of failure can harm the patient. For example, most have batteries in case the wall-socket power fails. Additional hazards are uncontrolled flow causing an overdose, uncontrolled lack of flow, causing an underdose, reverse flow, which can siphon blood from a patient, and air in the line, which can starve a patient's tissues of oxygen if it floats to some part of a patient's body.