Accuracy of drug infusion pumps under computer control

Infusion rates demanded of the infusion pump in many computer-controlled drug delivery applications are made to change at intervals much shorter than those encountered under routine clinical use. The purpose of this study was to validate the volumetric accuracy of three commercially available infusion pumps operating in a demanding computer-controlled application. In independent 2-h evaluations, the infusion rate demanded of each pump changed as often as every 5, 10, or 15 s using an algorithm for computer-controlled pharmacokinetic model-driven intravenous infusion. Accuracy of the infusion devices was determined gravimetrically. At all measurement times, each of the infusion pumps was accurate to within approximately +or-5% of the expected volumetric output under each of the infusion rate intervals tested. Flow rate accuracy of +or-5% is equal to the nominal expected accuracy of these infusion pumps in conventional clinical use.