Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Patent
1988-02-22
1989-11-14
Pellegrino, Stephen C.
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
604 77, 604214, A61M 3100
Patent
active
048804096
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for feeding a dosage of food into the mouth of a person, especially an elderly patient, and comprises a flexible container for receiving a dosage of food, said container being compressable for the discharge of said dosage through a feeding channel in a spoon-like feeding head.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A similar device (see SE-B-7905307-0) is intended for the feeding of a dosage of liquid medicine into a child's mouth. The known device has a spoon part with a near neck, which is provided with an internal feeding channel and is connected to a relatively flat, flexible container serving as a spoon handle. The transversal side portions of the flat container are held apart from each other by means of two spring members extending from the rear neck of the spoon part along the inside of the respective transversal side of the container. By pressing these transversal sides towards each other directly by hand, the container can be compressed, and when the pressure is released, a dosage of liquid medicine can be sucked into the container through the feeding channel. Then, while feeding the child in a regular manner by the use of the spoon, the food can be mixed with a dosage of liquid medicine by simultaneously compressing the container.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention, on the other hand, is to provide a device for the feeding of a dosage of food, in the form of a liquid and/or, in particular, a mash, such as mashed potatoes, possibly containing small bits of solid food, into the mouth of a patient who has difficulty in eating in the normal way with a knife and fork or even with a spoon. Especially elderly patients have to be fed by another person, e.g., by a nurse, and quite a few patients cannot eat from a spoon even with such help. Thus, there is a need for a special device, which will enable these patients to be fed neatly from, e.g., a plate with mashed food.
According to the invention, this object is fulfilled by a flexible container device which is tubular and compressable between two handle pieces which are mutually pivotable like a pair of tongs. The helping person holds the two handle pieces in one hand and presses the handle pieces towards each other. The mashed food can be sucked into the container by letting the handle pieces pivot away from each other while the container expands by itself. The feeding head is then inserted into the patient's mouth and the dosage of mashed food is fed into the mouth by pressing the handle pieces together again.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Further advantageous features of the device will appear from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, reference being made to the appended drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a side view of the device in rest position with the handle pieces apart from each other;
FIG. 2 is a corresponding side view of the device in an operative position with the handle pieces pressed towards each other; and
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the device in the rest position of FIG. 1.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The device consists of a spoon-like feeding head 10, a flexible, tubular container 20 connected to the feeding head 10, and a pair of handle pieces 30,40 disposed on each side of the tubular container 20 and being mutually pivotable so as to compress the container 20.
The feeding head 10 is shaped with outer contours like a spoon blade but has no concavity for receiving food. Instead, it has an internal feeding channel 11 extending along the whole longitudinal length thereof, i.e., from a rear neck portion 12 to the front end 13'. The geometrical external shape of the feeding head is designed to give the device the general impression of a spoon and to facilitate the insertion of the feeding head into the patient's mouth, but the function of the spoon-like feeding head is quite different, namely, to enable suction of a dosage of mashed food into the container 20 and feeding of the dosage through the internal feeding channel 11.
REFERENCES:
patent: 75693 (1868-03-01), Morrell
patent: 3104032 (1963-09-01), Hansen
patent: 4581021 (1986-04-01), Landau et al.
Bergkvist Hakan
Juhlin Sven-Eric
Norberg Astrid
Winbad Bengt
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