Proposal of Non-contacting Inspection Method of Tip Position of Nasogastric Tube Using Alternating Magnetic Field

Abstract

About 10% of stroke patients have a swallowing difficulty. In these circumstances, the nutrition is poured into the stomach using a nasogastric tube made of resin. When the tube is inserted from a nostril to the stomach, it may be inserted into the lungs by mistake. It will become a fatal situation if the nutrition is fed incorrectly. In this paper, the inspection technique of the position of the tip of the tube by detecting the alternating magnetic field excited from ten positions on the human body using a 3-axis search coil at the tip of the tube. It is shown that the maximum error of positioning is less than 10mm, so that the proposed technique can be safely applicable in medical practice.