When a person becomes unconscious, the muscles in their jaw relax and allow the tongue to obstruct the airway.
An oropharyngeal airway is used to maintain opened a patient's airway. It does this by preventing the tongue from covering the epiglottis, which could prevent the person from breathing.
Besides in pre-hospital emergency care, other uses of this medical device are in short term airway management post anaesthetic and when manual methods are inadequate to maintain an open airway.
This medical device come in a variety of sizes, from infant to adult. So oropharyngeal airways need to be sized and inserted correctly to maximize effectiveness and minimize possible complications.
This project tries to optimize oropharyngeal airway design by implementing an adequate mesh and a 3D printer. Three different sizes will be manufactured to cover any patient age.
The CAD model of the final prototype will be tested at a FEM Software in order to compare mechanical properties with the existing and commonly used Guedel airway.
The final goal is to create an attached file of the oropharyngeal airway design, so that anyone at anyplace with internet access can download the file and make it a reality by a 3D printer. This medical device can help people in many countries around the world and who knows, it can also save a life.