CONSTRUCTION OF A TROLLEY BASED SYSTEM INCORPORATING LATERAL CASSETTE HOLDER USING LOCALLY SOURCED MATERIALS FOR TRAUMA RADIOGRAPHY

Trolley based system is a trolley incorporating x-ray features that allow easy radiography in trauma patients. 

In this work, a trolley based system is constructed with the two basic features which include a fixed lateral cassette holder to facilitate lateral shoot-through radiography and with locally sourced material for affordability. It is a four sided metallic framework on a strong stable castor wheel base. It is 84cm high with base dimension of 120cm x 84cm and top dimension of 183cm x 88cm. It is constructed with both metals and non-metals. The metals include aluminum, steel (an alloy) and castor wheels, the non-metals are synthetic rubber, oil paint and padding mattress for the top. Each material was chosen to commensurate with its relevance to certain role in the troll

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.

Table 1: Record of the weight of the ten people used for weight-rating of the trolley top, their respective age and weight effect on the trolley.

Table 2: Record of data obtained from the attenuation efficiency test of the trolley top material as compared to an x-ray couch and the exposure factors used for the test.

Figure1.Architectural design of the base frame

Figure 2: Architectural design of the Bucky frame.

Figure 3: Architectural design of the cassette tray carrier

Figure 4: Architectural design of the cassette tray

Figure 5: Architectural design of the trolley top

Figure 6: Architectural design of the side rail with lateral cassette holder

Figure 7: Architectural design of the detachable drip stand

CHAPTER THREE: MATERIALS AND METHODS

CHAPTER FOUR: QUALITY CONTROL TEST RESULTS

CHAPTER FIVE

Safe patient handling has always been an area of concern for hospital staff and management1. There are multiple cases of injury caused to patients during shifting, leading to further complications and resulting sometimes in lawsuits. Patient handling involves considerable physical effort by the medical radiographer and support staff.

Traditionally, patients are manually shifted from a bed to a stretcher trolley or a wheel chair. In better equipped hospitals, a patient lift is used, which is either a sling lift or sit-to-stand lift. This enables patients to be transferred between a bed and a chair or other similar resting places. The use of a patient lift is much dignified than transferring a patient manually but upon all these innovations in patient lift and transfer system, there is need for a trolley base system which is more comfortable to traumatized patients. Here, a special trolley is made with x-ray cassette slot for Anterio-posterior/Posterio-anterior radiography and lateral cassette holder for lateral shoot-through radiography. This means that basic radiography can be done on a traumatized patient with minimal or no movement of the patient. Advantages of trolley base system are numerous. The importance of safe patient handling cannot be overstated, especially in the case of trauma, or fracture. It greatly helps in reducing the strain and stress involved in moving heavy patients, apart from reducing the number of staff required to move patients.

These radiographic features of trolley based system made it ideal for use in accident and emergency unit. The overall aim of this facility is to ensure that there is minimum amount of movement and also to reduce the disturbance of the injured subject. This equipment allowed radiographic and fluoroscopic controlled examinations to be made with the least physical disturbance of the subject.

 Due to high cost and non-availability of foreign made trolley based system, we decided to use locally sourced material to construct it, with the aim of making the price affordable for our hospitals.