Surgery – Body protecting or restraining devices for patients or infants – Drapes
Patent
1998-09-23
2000-10-31
Brown, Michael A.
Surgery
Body protecting or restraining devices for patients or infants
Drapes
128853, A61B 1900
Patent
active
061386766
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to the coverage of patients on the operation table. For more reasons it is desirable to cover these patients with a sterile material, first of all for avoiding a transfer of micro organisms from peripheral, non-sterilized areas of the patient to the disinfected operation area.
Besides, it is desirable to hold the patient covered with a heat insulating cover in order to protect the patient against a noticeable loss of heat during the anaesthesia. For good reasons, such a cover should only be used outside the sterile area, and for this purpose it is known to use a thin plastic sheet with a fine gauze material at one side and with a coating of heat reflecting, on-vapourized aluminium on the other side. The patient may be covered by and more or less wrapped into this material, with the gauze layer facing inwardly for absorbing sweat from the patient. Thereafter a hole can be cut in this sheet, somewhat larger than the operation area, whereafter the abovementioned covering can be established using sterile cover sheets, which are arranged with their free edges located somewhat inside the edge of the hole cut in the heat insulating wrapping. It is customary that the covering sheets are made of a laminate of a plastic sheet and an outer surface coating of a paper web. These sheets, which are not heat reflecting, will not contribute noticeably to the heat insulation, so much less as they are not wrapped about the patient, but should be spread over the top side of the patient and extend therefrom directly to the edges of the operation table and further therefrom down to slightly above the floor.
With the present invention it has been recognized that it is possible to combine these material sheets in order to achieve a facilitating of the handling procedure, viz. in arranging for the operative edge areas of the cover sheets to be directly connected with an underlying sheet of the wrapping material, such that a double layer is provided, in which the metal coated side of the wrapping material faces outwardly towards the smooth inner side of the cover sheet. It is then possible, without any preceding insulation coverage of the patient, to mount the cover sheets in the desired, normal manner for delimitation of the operation area, whereby the two material layers are allowed to extend in common outwardly and downwardly. Thereafter the operator can handle the cover sheets fully as though they were wrapping sheets, i.e guiding them down along the sides of the patient and pushing them, with the fingers, well inwardly under the patient, whereby the double layer is pushed to a folded position, in which the fold is situated underneath the patient and is held in position by the weight of the patient. The insulating wrapping now having been established, what is left is to arrange the the outer cover sheets in the outwardly extending and freely downhanging position. This, however, can be arranged by a simple pulling out of this outer layer from the folded-in area, advantage here being taken of the fact that the two material layers have their respective smooth sides facing each other. The lower or inner layer has its gauze side at the pushed-in fold turned against the patient and the underlying table, respectively, whereby at both sides there will exist a marked frictional engagement which will, without further, enable a separate pulling out of the fold area of the exterior layer, this area being smooth to both sides, and upon this pulling out the exterior layer may then be arranged as desired, while the interior layer remains in its close contact with the patient and even with the underside of the patient.
Optionally, also the cover sheet members may be metallized on their smooth side, whereby it is possible to use the same kind of material for the two layers, and whereby the cover sheets will provide for a modest, yet increased contribution to the heat insulating effect. It should be emphasized that in principle the invention is not bound to any specific material choice, but of course suitable materi
REFERENCES:
patent: 3263680 (1966-08-01), Morgan
patent: 5209243 (1993-05-01), Glassman
patent: 5546960 (1996-08-01), Billgren
patent: 5778890 (1998-07-01), Lofgren
Brown Michael A.
Safran David S.
Surcon A/S
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