Surgery – Isolation treatment chambers
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-12
2002-10-08
Lacyk, John P. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Isolation treatment chambers
C005S626000, C005S627000, C005S312000, C005S006000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06461290
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to isolation pods or protective containment devices used to isolate patients and for their transport. This transportable containment device provides an impermeable barrier against chemical and biological agents by isolating the injured person within a plastic pressure-type filtered environment, and protects the persons doing the transporting as well as the patient. Preferably the isolation device is capable of being compactly stored and/or easily transported to a site for use in emergencies For instance, large containers or packs may store a large number of such containment devices for use by military people in the field against biological or other type of chemical hazards. On the other hand, individual isolation devices may be conveniently carried or stored on a paramedic emergency vehicle for use in emergencies when transporting one or more infectious patients or person that has AIDS or unknown infectious diseases that need to be controlled against transmission to the people doing the transporting.
The illustrated and preferred isolation and protective device is for use with a litter or stretcher, or other device, which allows the protective barrier to primarily be made of a thin plastic material which is collapsed for compact storage and expanded to receive a patient thereby providing a low-cost, disposable, containment device. For military applications, there is a need for a drag bottom for use with the isolation device so that the patient can be carried or dragged by a corpsman or a paramedic across a battlefield to a vehicle for later transport to a hospital, or the like. Another important consideration in the use of such a isolation device is that it be simple to use in times of extreme emergency or excitability, such that personnel opening the device and placing people into the containment device, may not be thinking as clearly as they would normally be thinking and such that untrained personnel may be pressed into service for placing patients in these isolation devices when there is a wide-spread, mass chemical or biological attack. Also, in the case of some diseases, such as hemorrhagic fevers, like Ebola or Marburg viruses, the patients may resist handling and there is a risk in contaminating the handlers unless the device is capable of being opened to a position in which it is very easy to place the patient inside. Further, when the patient is inside, it is important that the patient not be feeling claustrophobic and, therefore, it is desirable to provide the patient with a clear field of view, as well as to have air flowing the patient's face so that the patient understands that he has plenty of air to breathe while being surrounded by the barrier housing.
With respect to air ventilation, when the ambient atmosphere about the patient is contaminated, the air being supplied into the containment device should be purified or filtered before flowing across the patient in the protective containment device. Stated differently, if the surrounding ambient atmosphere is contaminated, then it is desired than the patient be placed within the containment device, and that the air being supplied to the patient be purified and filtered before it is forced into the containment device. On the other hand, if the has an infectious disease that can be transported by air, then it is desired to have the air filtered or purified before it is discharged from the interior of the protective device into the ambient atmosphere. Also, there are a number of other considerations with respect to air flow that should be met to provide a viable air flow dynamics and an air-tight environment about the patient.
From a cost and a weight standpoint, there is currently provided a Vickers box device which typically cost $20,000 to $30,000 and is heavy, in that it weighs about 200 pounds unloaded. Such a device is very difficult to store in that it is bulky and not adapted for storage in large number or for use in the event of a biological emergency. In addition, it cannot be transported in various types of military evacuation vehicles or used with the common paramedic vehicles used by fire departments or other health safety units of a municipality. The Vickers box is intended for use for transporting victims of natural biological hazards, such victims may include persons who have been infected with Ebola or Marburg virus, anthrax or the like. The Vickers box comprises a relatively self-contained unit having an external frame with a biological hazard barrier comprising sheet polyvinyl chloride sheet suspended therefrom. The frame has a foot rest or step. A lower substantially oval loading port provides access to the interior through which a patient may be carried to rest on a stretcher-like structure. The barrier has a ventilation tube entering its foot end. Glove ports are formed on the sides of the frame thereof. A pass-through port extends through the barrier approximately near the center of the pod or about waist-high on the patient. There are pairs of glove ports on each side of the unit. Intravenous bags and the like may be suspended from the frame of the unit. An intravenous line may extend through a port in the side of the unit.
The use of flexible plastic, such as PVC for forming a isolation cylindrical plastic tube about a patient and for purifying the air being admitted into the enclosed volume is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,265,059 and 3,272,199. In these patents, a plastic polyvinyl chloride sheet, twice as long as the length of the patient's bed, is hung on a series of slidable supports or by hangers slidable on an overhead external rod so that the medical person with his hands in the glove ports may administer to the patient by sliding the flexible sheet between the patient's head and feet with the plastic sliding and the hangers sliding along the top support rail. In the U.S. Pat. No. 3,265,059, the sheet is folded with creases therein to facilitate its sliding. In the U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,199, air bearings at the end allow the telescoping of the plastic sheet over end units. The devices shown in these patents are for use with hospital beds or the like, and require large external frames having an overhead slide rod. Also, an excessive amount of plastic is used, that is, the plastic sheet is double the amount needed for the length of the patient or mattress. The devices proposed in these patents are bulky and are simply not compact for storage in large numbers to be ready for use in case of a biological emergency, nor are these devices adapted to be used with a litter for transport to or for use within evacuation vehicles, either of the military type or of a fire department type.
What is needed and desired is an inexpensive, easily-compatible and stored isolation device which can be held in inventory by military or civilian defense organizations at various locations for quick access. Also, there is a need for inexpensive and compact isolation devices for inventory by fire departments or other evacuation municipal units where they may be transporting people with airborne infectious diseases or fluid transmitted diseases such as AIDS or hepatitis and where there is bleeding. A large amount of money is spent cleaning emergency vehicles after the transporting of people who are bleeding and who could possibly have AIDS, infectious hepatitis, etc. The amount of time consumed in cleaning such vehicles; and the resultant hazards involved with any improper cleaning to the paramedics and to subsequent patients is a problem. It would be better if the patient could be placed in the isolation containment device and transported without contaminating the evacuation vehicle such that the isolation device, or pod, itself could be disposed of by burning or by cleaning in some manner for reuse.
While the aforesaid copending application describes and illustrates an embodiment in which there is provided a drag bottom and a stretcher, there are other instances where a litter need not be used and that the patient is fully ambulatory and still ne
Mullins, Jr. Robert L.
Reichman David A.
Yaffe Lyn J.
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
IIT Research Institute
Lacyk John P.
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