A systematic review on real-time automated measurement of IV fluid level: Status and challenges

The primary aim of this systematic review is to investigate the current research done on the real-time measurement or tracking of (and/or controlling) the amount of intravenous (i.e. IV) fluid level in a saline bag. IV fluid is administered to patients to control water distribution, fluid and electrolyte balance and osmotic pressure of body fluids. But when the fluid exhausts, complications may arise such as backflow of blood or air embolisms. A total of 157 articles were screened and 8 were selected for this review. The most common publication venue was IEEE (7, 87.5%). This review only considered recent studies published between 2010 and 2017. The identified studies involved measuring IV fluid level with the use of infrared (2, 25%), through visible light with LED and photo-detector (1, 12.5%), through visible light with LED and photo-transistor (1, 12.5%), through IV bag weight using Load Cells (2, 25%), through light and sound with fork type light barriers and ultrasonic sensors (1, 12.5%) and through sound with custom piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers (1, 12.5%). It was seen that almost all studies produced more or less accurate results which were within acceptable limits. Some studies even went further and integrated remote fluid administration control with the help of servo motors and accompanying computer control stations, wireless sensor networks and Radio Frequency Identification (i.e. RFID) to identify patients. A novel system model was proposed and discussed to counter the research gap of automated IV monitoring in real-time. Thus, we can conclude that there is still room for improvement in this area of research and development. Key issues and possible way outs are integrated along with this study to make real-time measurement of IV fluid level in more accurate and efficient way.