Evaluation: ICU Medical/Q Core Medical Sapphire Multitherapy Patient-Controlled Analgesic Infusion Pump

• PCA infusion pumps—These devices allow patients to self-administer doses of pain-relieving medication within the limits prescribed by a physician. Patients can activate the delivery of solutions by pressing a pendant button on a cord connected to the pump or a button directly on the pump. This type of therapy is used for postoperative, obstetric, terminally ill, and trauma patients, and is increasingly being used for less acute patients.
• Ambulatory PCA infusion pumps—Like PCA pumps, these units allow patients to self-administer doses of pain-relieving medication within the limits prescribed by a physician, and patients can activate the delivery of solutions by pressing a pendant button on a cord connected to the pump or a button directly on the pump. Ambulatory PCA pumps may be used as PCA therapy pumps; however, they are small in size and therefore better suited for less acute patients.

The Sapphire Multitherapy pump can be used in other modes for other clinical applications beyond PCA, including continuous, secondary, multistep, intermittent, epidural intermittent, total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and patient-controlled epidural analgesic (PCEA) applications. 3. The pump is normally connected to an IV pole with a clamp (mini cradle) and a lockbox. 4. Major device components and software features:

• Pump
  • Medication container (bag)—up to 500 mL bag supported by the largest lockbox
  • Administration set—Proprietary consumable administration set; various sets options are available; all are non-DEHP
  • Operational range
    • Flow rate: i) Continuous rate: 0.1-99 mL/hr ii) Bolus: up to 600 mL/hr
    • Volume to be infused (VTBI): 0.1-9,999 mL
  • Infusion modes
    • Continuous infusion
    • PCA dose only
    • Continuous and PCA dose
    • Loading dose
    • Priming mode
    • Clinician bolus
    • General (i.e., basic) mode: Infusion mode without any drug-specific limits
    • PreSet programs—Custom dosing protocols with default values. These cannot be configured through the drug library editor (DLE) but rather must be configured separately for each pump through the user interface.
  • User controls: Resistive touchscreen; can be operated with dry, wet, or gloved hands
  • Display: 6.35 × 5.1 cm (2.5 × 2 in)
  • Weight with battery,  250 mL lockbox, and pole mount (mini cradle): 1.7 kg
  • Dimensions (H × W × D): 143 × 96 × 49 mm (5.63 × 3.78 × 1.93 in)
  • Battery life: 24 hr at 125 mL/hr (with a fully charged battery, and backlight off)
  • Wireless connection: Not available
• Patient pendant
  • Used to request PCA doses
  • Indicators: audible only
  • Patient handle can be configured to:
    • Audible alarm for every request
    • No audible alarm for every request
    • Audible alarm for a successful request (i.e., when dose was delivered)