We are currently putting together a comparison of several different ambulatory pumps, and are hoping to compare in more detail the top 5. Can anybody tell me which these are (through sales figures) and any other comments about ambulatory pumps that they feel may be relevant to our understanding?

I'll be interested to see if anyone comes up with 5 !

I know of the infamous Graseby MS16 (or 26) and the Micropump MLH by a company who's name escapes me.

The company name that eludes you is Micrel http://www.micrelmed.com

MICREL Medical Devices S.A.
Ithakis 4
Pallini GR15351
Athens Greece
Tel : + 30 210 6032333 & 4
Fax: + 30 210 6032335

Available in the UK from:
Applied Medical Technology Ltd of Cambridge.
http://www.applied-medical.co.uk/
They also do a small pump from Cane of Italy.
We have purchased a few of each to see if they are any different to the Graseby MS machines. So far so good.
Robert

In North Glasgow we want to replace our hundreds of Graseby MS16A and MS26 pumps with a safer ambulatory syringe driver.

We have looked at the Micrel pump which has some advantages over the old Graseby syringe drivers, but it still does not meet most of the MHRA (MDA) "important safety features."

We have had an inital look at a pre-production Graseby Advancia MS. This appears to meet all the MHRA safety features, the only disadvantage we could see was that it was larger and heavier than the old MS16A/MS26. So we were looking forward to conducting a full scale evaluation of this pump once it was placed on the market. We were extremely disappointed to learn last week that Graseby has stopped the development of the Advancia. A very strange decision when one considers the sales potential of this pump.

So where do we go from here? Well, the only option I see for an ambulatory pump which meets most or all of the MHRA important safety features is to go for one of the volumetic ambulatory pumps. But these have high lifetime costs with expensive consumables and purchase prices of two to four times the cost of the MS16A/MS26.

Like Roy, I await with interest other replies. I'm having difficulty finding one suitable pump, let alone five!

In no particular order you should consider these pumps....

Abbott Gemstar;
Baxter i-pump (or their newer version);
Deltec CADD Prizm or VIP, CADD 1, CADD Plus, CADD PCA from Smiths Medical (used to be Graseby);
Micrel Rythmic from AMS Medical;
McKinley Medical have an interesting Israeli pump which is worth a look, sorry can't remember the name;

MDA did a fairly good report on these in the last couple of years

If you want Ambulatory syringe drivers then you've only really got the..

MS16a & 26 from Smiths (Graseby)
Micrel MP Hourly, MP Daily, MP100 & MP200 from AMS

Good luck.

Im surprised not to see the B Braun perfusor compact.

I thought these were one of the key parts of a national strategy for equipment compatabitly for retrival.

We have 6 of these, used exclusively for retrival.

Operated on mains or 4 AA batteries they are ideal transport pumps as the batteries last over 80 hours at 10 ml/hr and the are easily changed for standard AA cells( available from all good newsagents).

Much larger than a ms16a, not suitable for some of those tyoe of applications.

Min. syringe size 20 ml.

Supplied by B Braun and spares availbe from datex ohmeda.


Work well, require a bit of getting used too.

Tracy

"require a bit of getting used too" You're telling me. Unless you know them well they seem hard to use, they are not instinctive. The retrieval team here like them especially with the AA batteries which can be easily carried and replace, and they are small and light.
But BME does not like them. They are forever being sent to us for repair and Datex-Ohmeda take forever to turn them round if it is a complicated fault. I think D-O actually send it back to BBraun in Germany if it more than a basic fix.
Robert

"General" listed the Abbott Gemstar. We had half a dozen of these for epidural infusions and they were a bit of a disaster ! Very unreliable and the service department (in Ireland, I think) took ages to turn them round and often didn't provide a loan. The rep was very good when she knew we had a problem and often lent us her demo stock, but the overall impression was poor.

We eventually persuaded them to take them away and give us our money back.

Chris said "We have looked at the Micrel pump which has some advantages over the old Graseby syringe drivers, but it still does not meet most of the MHRA (MDA) 'important safety features.' " and that's the problem. Why spend a significant amount of money replacing all the Graseby's only to buy something which still doesn't really do the job safely or have full history retrieval ?

The main problem with ambulatory pumps is having absolutely nothing to go on when they are sent in with an incident form. You might suspect that it has "over infused" because someone has kept pressing the bolus button, but you can't prove it and the pump works fine when you test it - as it does when Graseby test it ! Providing a digital display rather than rotary rate selection switches doesn't solve basic alarm problems.

Someone needs to invest some money in R&D and come up with a pump which is small, light, can take syringes down to 1cc and has a full range of alarms and a history. If you can fit all that technology into something as small as an iPod, then it must be possible !

I've always thought of the Braun Perfusor Compact as a portable pump rather then an ambulatory one (i.e. one which can be 'worn') though as Tracy points out it should be considered if only because of the battery life.

Roy has hit the nail on the prverbial head in mentioning the key attributes for an ambulaory pump. However, in my previous life I put together the spec for such a pump (the Advancia MS) and we found very quickly that the force required to push a 1ml syringe was too great for any motor available that would make the pump ambulatory. We could only just get good performance out of the better 2ml syringes.

Bottom line is that you will never see an ambulatory pump as small as an MS 16a or 26 with all the requisite safety and performance features (accuracy, time to occlusion etc) that takes disposable syringes....because the syringes are part of the problem too.

Shame the Advancia will never see the light of day because it really could have moved the safety bar up to where it should be in ambulatory infusion....however....there is another....so an old "Colleague" :smilewink: told me!!