Infusion Pump

An infusion pump is a medical device that infuses fluids, medication or nutrients into a patient's circulatory system, most commonly by the intravenous route, though subcutaneous, arterial and epidural delivery are also used. It administers precise volumes that would be impractical to give by hand, from doses as small as a tenth of a milliliter per hour to frequent scheduled injections, patient-controlled doses kept within programmed safety limits, or amounts that vary over time, and it can also generate the controlled higher pressures needed for subcutaneous or epidural delivery. One widely used application is patient-controlled analgesia, which lets a patient request pain relief on demand while the pump's programmed limits guard against an overdose that could suppress breathing. The source consulted for this entry gives no specific date or named inventor for the device's origin, so none is recorded here.