General Electric Company

Ge Healthcare Finland Oy

Markku Erik Spoof

Borje T Rantala

Matti VeliTapani Huiku

Erno Muuranta

Methods and systems are provided for monitoring neuromuscular blockade in patients during surgical procedures. In one embodiment, a system includes a stimulator, an electromyography (EMG) sensor, a kinemyography (KMG) sensor, and a single connector configured to couple each of the stimulator, the EMG sensor, and the KMG sensor to a patient monitoring device via a single input. In this way, neuromuscular transmission (NMT) monitoring in patient may be done reliably by ensuring that NMT measurement from a first sensor (EMG sensor) is in line with the measurement of the second sensor (KMG sensor).

Method and system for neuromuscular transmission measurement

Method and systems are provided for monitoring neuromuscular blockade in patients during surgical procedures. The system and method utilizes a stimulator to provide stimulation to a nerve of the patient, such as train-of-four (TOF). Following such stimulation, the system and method monitors for muscle twitch reaction and, based upon the monitored muscle twitches, the system and method creates a neuromuscular blocking trend curve. The neuromuscular blocking trend curve provides an estimated time of recovery for the patient and provides the estimated recovery time to a clinician. The estimated recovery time allows the clinician to modify treatment of the patient to accelerate recovery if required.

Method and system for estimating patient recovery time utilizing neuromuscular transmission measurements

The invention relates to pulse oximeters used to measure blood oxygenation. The current trend towards lower power consumption has brought a problem of erroneous readings caused by intrachannel crosstalk, i.e. errors due to the coupling of undesired capacitive, inductive, or conductive (resistive) pulse power from the emitting side of the pulse oximeter directly to the detecting side of the oximeter. The pulse oximeter of the invention is therefore provided with means for detecting whether intrachannel crosstalk is present and whether it will cause erroneous results in the oxygenation measurements. The pulse oximeter is preferably further provided with means for eliminating intrachannel crosstalk which are adapted to control the measurement so that measurement signals can be obtained which are substantially void of crosstalk components.

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Jokela, Finland

Markku Erik Spoof