Sensor-Activated Oral Suction Device for Discrete Sialorrhea Management

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological disorder affecting motor control and movement. A common symptom of CP is sialorrhea, or excessive drooling, due to increased saliva production or failed mechanisms to clear saliva from the oral cavity. To aid in self-management of sialorrhea, treatments such as Botox injections, surgery, therapy, and intraoral devices exist. However, these treatments are too invasive, too obstructive, or cause resistance to training after long-term use. Thus, our team developed a portable, wheelchair-attachable suction system for a 20-year-old patient with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy to enable discrete self-regulation of his anterior sialorrhea. Main design requirements included the reduction of saliva spillage, discrete operation, and safe for long-term use. Our initial prototype demonstrated an Arduino operated suctioning device activated by a force-resistive sensor (FSR). The FSR initiates the DC vacuum pump, creating a negative pressure environment where saliva is sucked into silicon tubing and directly transferred into a collection reservoir. Because the main suctioning function was modeled in the initial prototype, later modifications focused on revising device components to ensure tight wire connections and prevent interruption in device function. We replaced the Arduino Uno and breadboard set-up with a FireBeetle ATMega-328 microcontroller and protoboard configuration and permanently soldered all circuit components. An adjustable housing unit for the tubing was also added to allow for optimal positioning of the end mouthpiece. Verification testing will be performed to test the device’s ability to reduce saliva spillage by 80%. After obtaining these results with/without device use, a one-tailed one-sample t-test will be conducted to determine whether our device sufficiently reduces saliva spillage. Our device will significantly impact CP patients suffering from anterior sialorrhea by alleviating the symptoms that cause medical and psychological impacts, such as skin irritation, social embarrassment, and lack of independence.