EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Nibp + Spo2 Monitors

Comments please - We are looking to purchase some new Nibp + Spo2 monitors. We have evaluated the following Criticare 506dx, Dinamap compact, Welch allyn Lifesign, and the Datascope accutorr plus. In clinical use they are equatable. Any comments from the technical side would be appreciated.
Thanks Stu.

Stun orris or is it Stuno rris?

We are looking at the same thing - we will probably not be getting the compact ts, most likely from Dolby or welch Allyn. Welch Allyn are cheaper but I'm not sure if they would be suitable for neonatal.

We bought some of the first Critikon Compacts and had very bad reliability problems, some of which took literally months for Critikon to sort out. The new compacts look better made - but are still held together inside with double-sided sticky tape and jubilee clips !
We have bought a number of Welch Allyn units and the only problem has been with the actual NIBP cuff. The velcro fastener basically wasn't up to the job.
The staff like the Welch Allyn units and the stands are excellent.

We had Dinamap Compact T's which were an absolute disaster until they were all upgraded and have been fine since. The new ones certainly look nicer but are not really easy to work with. We started to buy Datascope Accutors now but we have real problems with the batteries which lead Datascope to supply us with free batteries for 3 years cause they reckon a lead acid battery won't last much more than 6 months. In my experience best avoided.

Compact T & Ts we had teething problems with the selector control and charging issues, since then all ok. I prefer these to the other manufacturers for ease of calibration and reliability, I have had punctured keypad membranes, battery charge and velcro issues!. Long term may even be cheaper if i can get my hands on those cheap probes (sale/wanted forum. The algorithm and pump ass. seem to be industry standard and are being incorporated into some very large manufacturers at the moment.

The welch Allyn NIBP monitors have proven to be nurse friendly and we don't see them in the EBME dept. Battery life is excellent, it has a robust design and it is simple to use. **It isn't suitable for neonates**. We are probably going to standardise on this monitor for all other areas [subject to EBME/Supplies user group approval].