MEDICAL DEVICES

Solomon C. Nwaneri, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Lagos. E-mail: snwaneri@unilag.edu.ng

Medical devices are invaluable to medical practice. The numerous innovations in the development of medical devices has led to significant improvement in healthcare services including diagnosis and treatment. Simple and complicated medical procedures are now performed across different hospitals globally leading to a decline in mortality and morbidity rates. These procedures cannot be done without the use of medical devices. Although, many medical devices are mostly used for disease diagnosis, others are used for therapeutic purposes as well to treat patients. The defibrillator is a typical therapeutic medical device which can be used to revive a person who suffers from a heart attack.

While some medical devices are extremely cheap and affordable for example, an oral thermometer costs as low as $1. Some other medical devices are very expensive and unaffordable. For example, the cost of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine could be as much as $100,000.00. Many primary healthcare hospitals or small clinics do not have these expensive devices and most often refer their patients to tertiary health centers when faced with critical problems. The mode of operation of a medical device is also important. 

Interestingly, medical devices could be invasive or non-invasive. Invasive medical devices are those which are inserted inside the body. A pace maker is a very common invasive medical device that is used to regulate a person's heart beat. Most other medical devices are non-invasive like the pulse oximeter.



LIST OF COMMON MEDICAL DEVICES
There are more than 10,000 different types of medical devices. Common examples are listed as follows:

  1. Ultrasound machine
  2. X-ray machine
  3. Glucometer
  4. Blood pressure monitor
  5. Bilirubin analyzers
  6. Magnetic resonance imaging machine
  7. Thermometer
  8. Neonatal incubator
  9. Electrocardiograph machine
  10. Apnea monitor
  11. Tongue depressants
  12. Anesthesia machine
  13. Autoclave
  14. Ventilator
  15. Colposcopy
  16. Defibrillator
  17. Fetal monitor
  18. Nebulizer
  19. Infusion pump
  20. Patient warmer
  21. Patient monitor
  22. CPAP
  23. Hearing aids
  24. Breast implants
  25. Stethoscope
  26. Surgical headlamp
  27. Microscope
  28. Pulse oximeter
  29. Pulse rate monitor
  30. Surgical table
  31. Otoscope
  32. Phototherapy machine
  33. Electrosurgical units
  34. Oxygen cylinder
  35. Suction pump
  36. Radiant warmer
  37. Dialysis machine
  38. Electric toothbrush
  39. Hospital beds
  40. Catheters
  41. Pacemakers
  42. Weighing scales
  43. Endoscope
  44. Bladder scanners
  45. Oxygen mask
  46. Surgical mask
  47. Pregnancy test kits
  48. Cheek retractors
  49. Aortic pump
  50. Heart-lung machine

Keywords: Disease Diagnosis, Invasive, Medical Devices,  Therapeutics

Fig. 1: Oxygen concentrator



Fig. 2: Pulse Oximeter





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