Incubator (medicine)

Historic incubators, Jakarta Children's Hospital, 1939

An incubator , colloquially known as an incubator , in medical parlance also Couveuse (French for incubator), is a medical product that can be used to create and maintain controlled external conditions for various incubation and growth processes. In particular, an incubator creates a microclimate with tightly regulated humidity and temperature .

use

Transport incubators are used in interhospital transfers, i.e. the transport of premature babies and seriously ill newborns from a hospital to a more suitable clinic with a specialist department for premature infant medicine. Transport incubators are designed for the special requirements of incubator transport, so that they are accordingly mobile and fast and safe loading is guaranteed. It must be possible to heat the transport incubator, enrich the air in the incubator with oxygen (O ₂ ), connect a ventilator bag that is dimensioned for the patient's size, and ensure cleanliness and hygiene . The first transport incubators were introduced by Hermann Hilber in Munich in the mid-1950s .

Intensive care transport incubators are used when the vital functions of the premature or newborn are at risk . By equipping conventional transport incubators, it is possible to use extended therapy options in intensive care medicine , such as the use of suction devices , respirators ( ventilators ), infusion pumps and the connection of additional devices for monitoring patient data.

history

The incubator for children to improve the chances of survival of premature and immature newborns was developed in France as early as 1857. The first device in the USA was built by Dr. William Champion Deming at State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, New York. The first baby in it was Edith Eleanor McLean on September 7, 1888, who weighed 1,106 grams at birth. The device was warmed by 57 liters of water. The forerunners of this constant temperature sensor in the uterus were the Ruehlsche cradle in Moscow in 1835 and the " warming bath " introduced by Credé in Leipzig in 1864.

In 1990 the “ incubator lie ” was born.

An infant incubator
A transport incubator for premature and newborn infants requiring intensive care
"Incubator" in 1960
Blood is drawn from the baby in the incubator