Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-16
2001-09-18
Trieu, Van T. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S605000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292102
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the detection of electrically conductive solutions and, more particularly, concerns devices and systems used to monitor individuals for the discharge of urine, especially in a hospital or other health care setting.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Incontinence is a familiar and predictable circumstance in the very young. However, the same problem can affect the elderly and/or the infirm of any age, who might have this problem because of some physiological, neurological, or psychological cause. Devices for detecting body fluids such as urine are particularly useful in institutional health care situations, where they are used to monitor and record urinary incontinence in bedfast patients.
As is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, the trend nation-wide in patient monitoring has been toward the use of electrical devices to signal changes in a patient's circumstance to a care-giver who might be located either nearby or remotely at a central monitoring facility, such as a nurse's station. The obvious advantage of an electronic monitoring arrangement is that it frees the care-giver to pursue other tasks away from the patient. Additionally, when the monitoring is done at a central facility a single nurse can monitor multiple patients which can result in decreased staffing requirements. General information relating to mats for use in patient monitoring may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/285,956 filed Apr. 2, 1999 the disclosure of which is specifically incorporated herein by reference. Additionally, U.S. Letters Patent Nos. 4,179,692, 4,295,133, 4,700,180, 5,633,627, and 5,640,145, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, contain further information generally pertinent to this same subject matter.
Among the advantages of electronic monitoring that are specifically applicable to the invention of the instant disclosure, it is well known that a signalling device can, in some circumstances, serve to condition the wearer to have improved bladder control, which can result in improved attitudes and state of psychological well being. Obviously, timely recognition of a problem has other advantages, including sanitary and aesthetic considerations.
Generally speaking, electronic patient monitors of the sort taught herein work by first sensing an initial status of a patient, and then generating a signal when that status changes, e.g., when the patient's bedclothes—which were formerly dry—become wet due to emission of urine. Electronic enuresis monitors typically exploit the fact that urine is a solution of, among other things, electrolytes, and will conduct a current of electricity. Detecting such fluids often has often involved using a pair of electrodes connected to a voltage source, and a detector circuit that activates an alarm when a gap between the electrodes is bridged by an electrically conductive fluid. Thus, presence of urine completes an otherwise “open” electrical circuit, which fact can be sensed by an attached electronic monitor. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the alarm might be local and/or remote (e.g., the monitor might signal the nurses station that a wetness has been detected).
However, there are serious risks associated with the use of electrical devices to detect fluid emissions, among which is the danger of galvanic burn to the monitored patient. In a typical arrangement, a constant load is applied to two electrical leads that are designed to be electrically isolated until such time as urine is present to bridge the connection. However, since electrical current is undiscriminating in the path that it takes—seeking, as it does, only the most direct way to complete the circuit—it is possible for the electrical current to pass through the patient's body (e.g., along the surface of the skin) when the circuit is completed. Alternatively, and much more dangerously, if the wet patient is grounded a serious electrical shock may be experienced. In spite of this fact, many monitoring pads sold today contain electrically conductive elements that come into near direct physical contact with the monitored individual during the time when those elements carry an electrical charge, thereby creating a risk of a galvanic burn of the patient's skin. Many more pads allow the patient's skin to come into electrical contact with the current used to monitor the device.
Further, many modem electronic monitors are susceptible to false alarms, a false alarm often being generated when the monitor becomes damp, rather than completely wet. Damp conditions might originate from, for example, perspiration. While excessive sweat is certainly a medical condition that could merit triggering an alarm in some instances, it should be under the control of the care giver as to whether or not this condition is signaled. Most electronic monitors are not designed with a minimum triggering wetness threshold level in mind and, thus, are subject to false alarms when they become damp.
Heretofore, as is well known in the patient monitor arts, there has been a need for an invention to address and solve the above-described problems. Accordingly, it should now be recognized, as was recognized by the present inventors, that there exists, and has existed for some time, a very real need for a enuresis mat and monitoring system that would address and solve the above-described problems.
Before proceeding to a description of the present invention, however, it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of this invention within the ambit of the appended claims.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with a first aspect of the instant invention, there is provided a binary switch-type device (e.g., a “mat”) for use in patient monitoring situations where release of bodily fluids such as urine is a concern. The preferred switch is, broadly speaking, a “sandwich” construction that consists of two outer layers that are separated by a porus, non-conductive insulating layer. Each outer layer member is constructed of a material that is non-conductive to electrical current and impervious to fluids. In the preferred embodiment, the base material will be polyester or plastic. On the inner face of at least one outer layer—which inner faces are oriented so as to face each other across the insulating layer—is placed some sort of electrically conductive material, the preferred arrangement being that the electrically conductive material is aluminum and is placed on the inner face by vacuum deposition: i.e., aluminized polyester as it is sometimes referred to by those skilled in the art. Additionally, the conductive material preferably does not cover the entire surface of both faces, but portions of those faces have been left uncovered (either at the time of aluminum deposition or subsequently by a stripping action). It is critical for purposes of the instant invention that there be at discontinuous regions of conductive material on at least one face. The separation between the conductive regions is a parameter that can be used to help control the triggering level (e.g., how damp the switch must be before the sensing circuit is closed).
In the preferred embodiment, the central insulating layer will be sized so as to extend beyond the edges of the outer layer members—although that is not strictly necessary—thereby allowing it to contact (sense wetness in) a larger area than it would otherwise. It is essential, though, that the interior of the switch “sandwich” be in fluid communication with the exterior of the device because, if it were completely sealed from fluid contact with the exterior, this would thwart its principal purpose. On the other hand, some means must be used to fasten together the various
Bed-Check Corporation
Fellers Snider Blankenship Bailey & Tippens, P.C.
Trieu Van T.
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