The goal of this project is to perform the basic research to ultimately commercialize a family of disposable products (i.e. retrograde drug delivery coils). These products when attached to an intravenous administration set powered by either gravity or an infusion pump will greatly enhance the predictability of antibiotic drug delivery. Particular focus will be on the pediatric/neonatal areas where very low maintenance infusion rates (i.e. 0.5-4.0ml per hour) and miniscule drug doses (0.06-5.0ml) are commonplace. Development of such systems will have four distinct healthcare/economical benefits over existing systems. These benefits are: 1) antibiotic delivery can be standardized through hospital departments; 2) small drug doses will be easy to administer and accurately delivered; 3) hospitals will be able to utilize their existing infusion equipment thus avoiding additional capital expenditures; 4) fluid input and output can be more easily tracked; and 5) elimination of costly drug serum levels which must be repeated because of inappropriate timing. The first task will be to write a computer program describing the flow dynamics and rheological principles expected to govern retrograde drug infusion. Factors such as: flow regimens (laminar, turbulent); flow rates (injection, infusion); geometry (tube diameter, drug volume); fluid properties (viscosity, density); diffusion (diffusivity); mixing (specific gravity, osmotic forces); and injection site geometry will be accounted for. Secondly, a series of invitro experiments with various disposable prototypes to validate the computer model will be conducted. Naturally, following a thorough analysis of both the data and model appropriate modifications thereof will be made for future reference. The proposed grant will provide funds for the creation of the computer model, conduction of analytical experiments to test/modify the computer model and construction and design cost for retrograde drug delivery disposable prototypes.
