Method for monitoring the patency of pneumatic tubing

摘要

A method of monitoring the patency of an inflated tube in a pneumatic medical device. The method includes inflating the tubing of the device, generating a pneumatic pulse at one part of the tubing by varying pressure in the tubing, sensing at another part of the tubing the variation of the pressure, determining the time between the generated and sensed pressure, and producing a human-perceptible signal when the time between the generated and sensed pressure exceeds a reference level.